4 ms·

Here's the paper with a less sensationalized title, "Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the United States, 1959-2017": https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama

Here's the paper with a less sensationalized title, "Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the United States, 1959-2017": https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187 The paper concludes as follows: > US life expectancy increased for most of the past 60 years, but the rate of increase slowed over time and life expectancy decreased after 2014. A major contributor has been an increase in mortality from specific causes (eg, drug overdoses, suicides, organ system diseases) among young and middle-aged adults of all racial groups, with an onset as early as the 1990s and with the largest relative increases occurring in the Ohio Valley and New England. The implications for public health and the economy are substantial, making it vital to understand the underlying causes.

sachdevap 7y ago
The paper might have a less sensational title, but that does not make the content any less news-worthy. I don't think the author is wrong at raising alarm about this.
- brenden2 7y ago
  2 different titles: "The rate of life expectancy increase slowed over time and life expectancy decreased after 2014" vs "Young people in U.S. dying at high rates" Which one seems sensationalist to you?
  - buboard 7y ago
    This: > life expectancy decreased after 2014 is explained by this: > "Young people in U.S. dying at high rates" Unless something terrible happened, lowered life expectancy for 3 years in a row should be unacceptable and warrant sensationalism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terribly-wrong-americans-are-dying-young-at-alarming-rates/2019/11/25/d88b28ec-0d6a-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terri... https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921858 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921858 https://www.healio.com/primary-care/practice-management/news/online/%7B257bd9d1-41b0-4bbc-bc7d-79c4b8a8f8dd%7D/us-life-expectancy-drops-after-decades-of-improvement https://www.healio.com/primary-care/practice-management/news...
  - TurkishPoptart 7y ago
    The one that is based on a scientific paper is less sensationalist.
  - sachdevap 7y ago
    Whatever you think about this issue, what kind of snowflakes do we have on HN who can't handle reasonable disagreement? Downvotes on such a reasoned disagreement is just sad. Edit: Just for context, there were downvotes initially on my grandparent comment, which has since changed.
    - mynameisvlad 7y ago
      > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html People will disagree, and some will downvote as a result. It's all meaningless internet points anyway, so why does it matter so much?
      - sachdevap 7y ago
        It actually does matter to visibility of comments when you're trying to engage in discussions. If you'll read my comment, I'm not really craving internet points in anyway. Downvoting for disagreement is just a poor way of having a discussion. In the comment that was downvoted, there was no name-calling, nothing uncivil. A lot of subreddits, surprisingly unlike HN, do actually discourage downvoting. And if I was craving internet points I'd probably not comment about voting cause clearly that's unpopular too. My arguments notwithstanding, I don't intend to comment on voting again.
  - sachdevap 7y ago
    This is not what my comment is about. I am saying that irrespective of the less sensational paper title, the conclusion of the paper is worth sensationalizing.
madaxe_again 7y ago
So... how reliable is the census data from the early part of that sample? It used to be extremely common for people to overreport their age, so they could fight in wars, claim rights and benefits they’d otherwise have missed out on, and in the days of loosely connected paper records, something like your age was easily changed. In addition, suicide or drug use was not typically recorded as a cause of death - you would be listed as an accident, or death by misadventure, or pneumonia. I’m not saying the paper is wrong, but I’m querying whether things have really got that dramatically worse, or if our data has got better. It’s certainly easy to believe that matters have got that much worse... which is why I’m querying it. If something seems obviously true there’s usually something missing.

sachdevap 7y ago

The paper might have a less sensational title, but that does not make the content any less news-worthy. I don't think the author is wrong at raising alarm about this.

brenden2 7y ago
2 different titles: "The rate of life expectancy increase slowed over time and life expectancy decreased after 2014" vs "Young people in U.S. dying at high rates" Which one seems sensationalist to you?
- buboard 7y ago
  This: > life expectancy decreased after 2014 is explained by this: > "Young people in U.S. dying at high rates" Unless something terrible happened, lowered life expectancy for 3 years in a row should be unacceptable and warrant sensationalism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terribly-wrong-americans-are-dying-young-at-alarming-rates/2019/11/25/d88b28ec-0d6a-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terri... https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921858 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921858 https://www.healio.com/primary-care/practice-management/news/online/%7B257bd9d1-41b0-4bbc-bc7d-79c4b8a8f8dd%7D/us-life-expectancy-drops-after-decades-of-improvement https://www.healio.com/primary-care/practice-management/news...
- TurkishPoptart 7y ago
  The one that is based on a scientific paper is less sensationalist.
- sachdevap 7y ago
  Whatever you think about this issue, what kind of snowflakes do we have on HN who can't handle reasonable disagreement? Downvotes on such a reasoned disagreement is just sad. Edit: Just for context, there were downvotes initially on my grandparent comment, which has since changed.
  - mynameisvlad 7y ago
    > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html People will disagree, and some will downvote as a result. It's all meaningless internet points anyway, so why does it matter so much?
    - sachdevap 7y ago
      It actually does matter to visibility of comments when you're trying to engage in discussions. If you'll read my comment, I'm not really craving internet points in anyway. Downvoting for disagreement is just a poor way of having a discussion. In the comment that was downvoted, there was no name-calling, nothing uncivil. A lot of subreddits, surprisingly unlike HN, do actually discourage downvoting. And if I was craving internet points I'd probably not comment about voting cause clearly that's unpopular too. My arguments notwithstanding, I don't intend to comment on voting again.
- sachdevap 7y ago
  This is not what my comment is about. I am saying that irrespective of the less sensational paper title, the conclusion of the paper is worth sensationalizing.

madaxe_again 7y ago

So... how reliable is the census data from the early part of that sample? It used to be extremely common for people to overreport their age, so they could fight in wars, claim rights and benefits they’d otherwise have missed out on, and in the days of loosely connected paper records, something like your age was easily changed. In addition, suicide or drug use was not typically recorded as a cause of death - you would be listed as an accident, or death by misadventure, or pneumonia. I’m not saying the paper is wrong, but I’m querying whether things have really got that dramatically worse, or if our data has got better. It’s certainly easy to believe that matters have got that much worse... which is why I’m querying it. If something seems obviously true there’s usually something missing.