4 ms·
By definition, life expectancy increases with age as a trend owing to better postnatal care over the past few decades. As the infant mortality rate has gone dow
by gargs 9y ago
By definition, life expectancy increases with age as a trend owing to better postnatal care over the past few decades. As the infant mortality rate has gone down, the life expectancy has gone up.
- albertgoeswoof 9y agoit's more than just postnatal care - better treatments, better diets, more public health knowledge etc. make a huge difference
- Bartweiss 9y agoPost-infancy life expectancy and life expectancy at adulthood have also both risen, though. Until recently, adult life expectancy in the first world was rising pretty steadily for all groups - it's turned around for some populations in the last few years.
- stevenwoo 9y agoInfant mortality has started going up in parts of the USA. There might be some connection with the conservative approach to defund women's healthcare as some sort of cost savings. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Why-are-so-many-moms-and-babies-dying-in-Texas-11740554.php http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Why-... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/rural-appalachia-lags-the-rest-of-the-country-in-infant-mortality-and-life-expectancy/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/rural...
- ptaipale 9y agoWhen we see things like: "it is not uncommon for her patients to drive two hours for an appointment, as maternal wards have closed at rural hospitals. " it's probably due to demographic changes more than defunding healthcare as such. If you have communities where there are no jobs, people move out, population diminishes, that also means that some services are shut down. This happens also in my country (which is a North European welfare state with good pre- and postnatal care and very low child mortality): some people have to go quite far away for the check-ups.
- sgnelson 9y agoThat's more economics than demographics. But yes, Hospitals and medical services in rural communities are disappearing at a phenomenal rate. Demographics do play somewhat of a role, but nothing compared to the change in our healthcare system (and how we pay for it) in the past 50ish years. It has in part to do with increased cost of healthcare, difficulty of having one family doctor offices, necessity of specialized services (all leading to an agglomeration effect, why you now see "healthcare cities" in more rural areas, where one city among a dozen has the only hospital and lots of other medical services available.) I'd also say that many hospitals are now parts of large chains that are "not-for-profit" in name only, while acting exactly like for profit entities. While rural areas are typically shrinking, there is still a very large amount of people who live in rural areas in the US. It's the loss of their economic impact (and the above factors) that have made their medical services disappear. But it's a complex issue and no one seems to have found a solution here in the US yet. But it's going to keep getting worse in the foreseeable future.
- urethrafranklin 9y agoConservatives are so despicable. Pretending to be "pro-life" when they demonstrably give no shits about the life of a child.
- paulddraper 9y agoUsually phrased "The right to life ends at birth." :/ Though as a anti-government-healthcare conservative, I have to say, I do give shits.
- urethrafranklin 9y agoI'll never understand how stupid you have to be to think government healthcare is a bad idea. Especially if you're pretending to give shits about other people's children.
- paulddraper 9y agoSo you admittedly fail to grasp the viewpoint of a hundred million people in the U.S. alone. That should give you pause. I highly recommend studying the other side of an issue until you do understand it, even if you still don't agree with it.
- urethrafranklin 9y agoDoesn't give me pause even for a second, because at least a hundred million people in the US alone are really fucking dumb.