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> It's not that U.S. life expectancy will decline (although it did last year for the first time), just that others will improve more. Is that acceptable? Othe
by hackuser 10y ago
> It's not that U.S. life expectancy will decline (although it did last year for the first time), just that others will improve more.
Is that acceptable? Other wealthy nations are improving much more rapidly. Certainly the U.S. could be doing better. It's immoral, a tragedy, and an embarrassment.
From the article;
The reasons for the United States' lag are well known. It has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of any of the countries in the study, and the highest obesity rate. It is the only one without universal health insurance coverage and has the “largest share of unmet health-care needs due to financial costs,” the researchers wrote.
Tellingly, the United States was the first high-income country to see a halt to the pattern of increasing height in adulthood, a reliable indicator of improving public health, according to Majid Ezzati, a professor of public health at Imperial College London, who led the research team.
Some Americans get a “bad start to life in nutrition and education” and suffer “high rates of homicide,” Ezzati said. “And then lack of universal insurance. Some people probably get diagnosed too little and too late.
- sandworm101 10y agoAnd has anyone compared the rates of drug use? Not illegal drugs, the prescriptions. When i lived in the US i was shocked by how many people lived lives soaked in various drugs year after year, young people. That isn't normal in other countries. At some point this trend, paticularly the opiods, has to start shortening average lifespans.
- hackuser 10y agoI've seen research saying healthcare providers in the U.S. are much more likely to prescribe drugs than in other wealthy countries. > At some point this trend, paticularly the opiods, has to start shortening average lifespans. I don't know what effects drugs, including opiods, have on lifespan. Certainly, taking the right prescription drugs extends lifespan in many cases. But even the wrong one might affect quality of life more than lifespan.
- girvo 10y agoOpiates taken recreationally (or prescribed, but taken at doses above what is directed) can reduce life-span due to the lowering of oxygen intake, interestingly. That's ignoring all the other problems inherent in them (overdose, etc.)