![]() ![]() Some regions in the US experienced “tectonic shifts” in their economy and population demographics during the years when life expectancy started changing, such as the collapse of the manufacturing sector that hit the Midwest particularly hard, Woolf said. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Many of the complex factors that drive life expectancy changes are as different among US states as they are among countries. Within the US, Woolf found in his new research that life expectancy grew slowest in the Midwest and South Central regions. But in every single one of those categories, we found dramatic differences between the US and other countries,” Woolf said – and things have only gotten worse since.įor example, the US lacks universal health care and has higher caloric intake, more guns, more drugs and higher rates of child poverty, among other differences. “We hoped that there would be an answer in one of those that would sort of be a magic bullet. The report from the National Research Council Institute of Medicine focused on five key areas: health care, health behaviors, social and economic factors, environment and public policy. “The pandemic was horrific loss of life, but it really reflects pre-existing, systemic problems in our country that have been compromising the health of Americans for decades.”Ī decade ago, a group of researchers set out to identify the specific factors that were holding the US back from achieving the same gains in life expectancy as other countries. Overall, the US had smaller annual increases in life expectancy than other populous countries, on average, in 49 of the 70 years studied.Ĭovid-19 is no longer a public health emergency, but others remainĪ plateau in the 2010s led to a “dramatically” wider gap for the US, and the Covid-19 years were “simply phase six of something that has been going on since the 1950s,” Woolf said. There were some years of growth and rebound, but more often than not, the pace of increase for the US lagged behind that of other countries. The US “life expectancy disadvantage” has steadily worsened since 1950, according to the new study, and Woolf groups the trend into six phases. Among the countries that have surpassed the US in recent years are Albania, a former member of the Eastern Bloc, and Lebanon. It’s not the only way to gauge the quality of life in a particular place, but it does tend to mirror trends in other health-related metrics, he said.įor these measures, the US is often compared with other wealthy and highly-industrialized nations that are considered to be its peers.īut this report shows that a diverse group of countries across six continents and a range of economic conditions have surpassed the US on life expectancy. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health. Life expectancy is a “summary measure of our health,” said study author Dr. Life expectancy was 77.4 years in the US that year, compared with 85.2 years in Hong Kong, according to data from the United Nations. In 2020, the US ranked 46th and had a 7.8-year gap from the highest-performing nation, according to the study. The Covid-19 pandemic widened that gap even more, as the US had more deaths from the virus than any other country and has been slower to recover. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images) Karen Ducey/Getty ImagesĬovid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in 2022, CDC data showsīy 2019, the life expectancy gap between the US and the highest-performing nation – now Hong Kong – had grown to more than six years, putting the US in 40th place among populous countries. The highly transmissible omicron variant is putting a significant strain on health systems nationally resulting in staffing shortages and changes in capacity strategies. SEATTLE, WA - JANUARY 21: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Nurse Elisa Gilbert checks on a patient in the acute care COVID-19 unit at the Harborview Medical Center on Januin Seattle, Washington. ![]()
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