3 ms·

I also thought it was interesting to see when the US branched away from the rest of the rich countries. For example: 1. All the other rich countries have stead

I also thought it was interesting to see when the US branched away from the rest of the rich countries. For example: 1. All the other rich countries have steadily increased health expenditure per capita, and for some reason this really accelerated in the US around the early '80s. But the money looks like it mostly went to things that didn't increase life expectancy. Maybe this was a Reagan thing? 2. The US had the highest cigarette sales until the mid '70s, but is now one of the lowest per capita. This is actually one of the things that the US has done better than its counterparts, e.g. Japan and Germany have higher cigarette sales per capita. However the death rate from smoking remains the highest, probably due to a combination of other factors such as poor healthcare. 3. Around the late '90s, the US really started to pull away from the rest of the rich countries in terms of death rate from opioid overdoses. Some of this spilled over into Canada, but they were able to keep it somewhat under control. 4. For deaths from both obesity and road accidents, the US just hasn't made the same sort of gains as the others since 1990.

pseudoramble 6y ago
About point #2, I wonder if the deaths caused by smoking remains high in the US because it's measured effect can be really delayed. Even if sales of cigarettes went down in the mid-70's, they were probably still high for quite a while. On top of that, the effects of smoking can take decades to appear. I could imagine somebody starting smoking in the mid 70's and not seeing effects until recently. EDIT: It turns out reading even not-so-carefully results in fruit! From the article: > But the chart also shows that smoking peaked earlier in the US. Since there is a lag of two to three decades between the peak of smoking and the peak of smoking mortality, this should be positive news for the US going forward. The country is over this mortality peak and we should expect the decline in lung cancer death rates in the US to continue in the coming years.

pseudoramble 6y ago

About point #2, I wonder if the deaths caused by smoking remains high in the US because it's measured effect can be really delayed. Even if sales of cigarettes went down in the mid-70's, they were probably still high for quite a while. On top of that, the effects of smoking can take decades to appear. I could imagine somebody starting smoking in the mid 70's and not seeing effects until recently. EDIT: It turns out reading even not-so-carefully results in fruit! From the article: > But the chart also shows that smoking peaked earlier in the US. Since there is a lag of two to three decades between the peak of smoking and the peak of smoking mortality, this should be positive news for the US going forward. The country is over this mortality peak and we should expect the decline in lung cancer death rates in the US to continue in the coming years.