They've been trending downward in the US since 1800. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1960/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1957/hist_stats_colonial-1

They've been trending downward in the US since 1800. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1960/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1957/hist_stats_colonial-1957-chB.pdf https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1960/compendia/... You can see by the other stats in the PDF that all measures of health improved dramatically 1800-1960.