'Live free and die'? The sad state of U.S. life expectancy

[Nevilledog]

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/25/1164819944/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy

Just before Christmas, federal health officials confirmed life expectancy in America had dropped for a nearly unprecedented second year in a row – down to 76 years. While countries all over the world saw life expectancy rebound during the second year of the pandemic after the arrival of vaccines, the U.S. did not.

Then, last week, more bad news: Maternal mortality in the U.S. reached a high in 2021. Also, a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association found rising mortality rates among U.S. children and adolescents.

"This is the first time in my career that I've ever seen [an increase in pediatric mortality] – it's always been declining in the United States for as long as I can remember," says the JAMA paper's lead author Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. "Now, it's increasing at a magnitude that has not occurred at least for half a century."

Across the lifespan, and across every demographic group, Americans die at younger ages than their counterparts in other wealthy nations.

How could this happen? In a country that prides itself on scientific excellence and innovation, and spends an incredible amount of money on health care, the population keeps dying at younger and younger ages.

*snip*

[ananda]

1. It's not hard to figure out why.

Sheesh

Racism, bigotry, big pharma, insurance companies
holding back claims, etc etc.

[Mosby]

9. It's the food.

Last edited Sun Mar 26, 2023, 03:46 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.democraticunderground.com/114230599

Obesity is a public health crisis in the US.

Fast food chains promote garbage food for profits.

Can you buy a Burger King quad burger anywhere else in the world besides the US? I'm guessing no.

Quad BK Stacker

Calories
810 kcal

Fat
53 g

Saturated Fat
23 g

Sodium
2,148.7 mg

Carbohydrates
32 g

Sugar
8 g

[former9thward]

13. You would be surprised.

BK has all sorts of menu items in different countries that are not available in the U.S. Here is one from Japan.

[Johnny2X2X]

17. Agree, it's the food

Our food supply changed dramtically in the late 70s and early 80s.

I'm old enough to remmebert the 70s. People were thin, and very few people watched their diets at all.

Peple were maybe more active, but purposeful exercising wasn't wide spread at all. Very very few people went to gyms to exercise.

I believe it's 90% the food supply changing that has created the obesity crisis in America today.

[Act_of_Reparation]

21. The data doesn't support that.

Diet may have something to do with increased adult mortality, but it does little to explain why all causes of pediatric mortality are on the rise. This includes mortality from injury as well as noninjury.

[Mosby]

24. Pediatric mortality

As panel B of the Figure demonstrates, this reversal in the pediatric mortality trajectory was caused not by COVID-19, but by injuries. In 2020, the COVID-19 mortality rate at ages 1 to 19 years was 0.24 deaths per 100 000, but the absolute increase in injury deaths alone was nearly 12 times higher (2.80 deaths per 100 000). As a group, mortality for all remaining causes of death other than injuries and COVID-19 (ie, all pediatric diseases combined) declined by 0.33 deaths per 100 000.2 COVID-19 mortality rates at ages 1 to 19 years nearly doubled in 2021 but explained only 20.5% of that year’s increase in all-cause mortality.3

The increase in pediatric injury deaths predates the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure, B). Suicides among individuals aged 10 to 19 years began to increase in 2007, and homicide rates in this age group began increasing in 2013. Between these nadirs and 2019, the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality rates for suicide increased by 69.5% and homicide rates increased by 32.7%.2 Likely contributors to both trends include increased access to firearms and a deepening mental health crisis among children and adolescents.4 Access to opioids (eg, fentanyl) also increased, and overdose death rates for individuals aged 10 to 19 years began increasing shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic.5

Although the pandemic did not initiate these trends, it may have poured fuel on the fire. Injury mortality at ages 10 to 19 years rose by 22.6% between 2019 and 2020. Much of this surge involved homicides, which increased by 39.1%, and deaths from drug overdoses, which increased by 113.5%. Transport-related deaths at ages 10 to 19 years, which had decreased for decades due to improved vehicle safety measures and greater use of occupant restraints, increased by 15.6% in 2020.2 Among children aged 1 to 9, injuries explained two-thirds (63.7%) of the increase in all-cause mortality in 2021, including a 45.9% increase in deaths involving fires or burns.3

All youths did not face an equal risk of injury deaths. The increase in injury deaths that occurred in 2020 primarily involved males (Figure, A). Risk also varied by race and ethnicity. For example, non-Hispanic Black youths accounted for two-thirds (62.9%) of homicide victims aged 10 to 19 years; in 2021, the homicide rate among non-Hispanic Black youths aged 10 to 19 years was 6 times that of Hispanic youths and more than 20 times that of Asian/Pacific Islander non-Hispanic youths and White youths. Even larger racial and ethnic disparities existed across sexes: the homicide rate for non-Hispanic Black males aged 10 to 19 years was 61 times that of non-Hispanic White females.3

The New Crisis of Increasing All-Cause Mortality in US Children and Adolescents

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2802602

[tanyev]

2. How could this happen? It's the GOP health care plan.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[friend of a friend]

4. How could this happen, we don't have universal healthcare

and our healthcare is getting more expensive. My wife and I probably would have died years ago if I wasn't 100% service-connected disabled, it gave me VA healthcare and her CHAMPVA before she was old enough for Medicare. She just needed an inexpensive supplementary.

[Ziggysmom]

5. Healthcare should not be about providing financial profits to shareholders; it should focus on

keeping all of our population healthy. More and more clinics and hospitals are being bought by private equity firms, the outcome does not help patients.

[appalachiablue]

10. I just X- Posted the NPR article & this impt. video on PE in Healthcare, Thanks

[Turbineguy]

6. Zero sum capitalism.

Many die so a few can make money.

[Marcus IM]

7. But the evil island of Dr Castro has a greater life expectancy.

My grandmother and mother both lived into their 100's. In Cuba

CUBA HAS WORLD'S HIGHEST RATE OF OVER 100-YEAR-OLDS

About 1,800 Cubans are over 100 years old, making it the country with the highest rate of centenarians, an expert said on Saturday.

Eugenio Selman-Housein, chairman of the 120 Years Club and previously head of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's medical team, also said " life expectancy has gone up to almost 80 years"

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cuba-has-worlds-highest-rate-of-over-100-year-olds-expert/articleshow/3069526.cms

[liberal_mama]

8. Lying about Covid? Letting people die for capitalism & political gain? n/t

[maxsolomon]

15. 8 replies before the word Covid appeared.

That is 90% of why.

[Mosby]

18. Look at the charts below.

Covid caused a one year drop in every country except the US.

[maxsolomon]

19. I saw those charts. I still think it's Covid.

Many dead Americans are obstinate idiots.

[Mosby]

20. Could be.

I have a relative who is getting over covid for the second time, their "doctor" prescribed ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and b-12.

[liberal_mama]

25. Exactly! People are completely oblivious that Covid isn't the first thing they think when they see

life expectancy dropping.

[Maeve]

11. For-profit healthcare doesn't help

Obamacare helps erase the rich/poor and black/white gaps. And then there is the diet issue, how much easier it is to afford and eat junk in this country....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. This scary

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. Americans' life expectancy is plummeting. The graphic is stunning.

Link to tweet

[Sky Jewels]

16. I think it's a combo of the big three: For-profit healthcare, Covid, and horrific diets

that lead to all sorts of early deaths via strokes, heart attacks, diabetic comas, and so on.

People avoid early care because they're afraid of the medical bills, which leads to terrible outcomes and much more serious conditions.

It's embarrassing and shameful that we put up with it as other countries look on with pity and horror.

[maxsolomon]

22. Covid + risk factors

which are left untreated because of the cost of healthcare.

[Sky Jewels]

23. Yes, it's all intertwined.

A tangled mess of poor health and death and medical debt.

But, hey, at least we can buy guns as easily as we buy chewing gum.