7 ms·

The original article points out that the primary difference between the US and the UK (as well as other peer countries) is that you're much more likely to die y

by whakim 4y ago

The original article points out that the primary difference between the US and the UK (as well as other peer countries) is that you're much more likely to die young in the US. A 5-year-old in the United States has a 4% chance of dying before age 40, whereas a 5-year-old in Australia, Austria, Canada, England and Wales, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, or Switzerland has ~1% chance of dying before age 40 (values appear to range from ~0.9% to ~1.25%). This suggests that the US's shorter lifespans aren't primarily caused by poorer healthcare outcomes, but rather social problems like drug overdoses, gun violence, and car accidents.

bilbo0s 4y ago
Woah! Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK - 5.2. In US - 12.5. (both have tens of thousands of KSI, but the US has over twice as many per cap. In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that!) Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to be expected as there is stringent firearm control in the UK.) Deaths by drug overdose and poisoning in UK - ~5000. In US - um, yeah, well over 120000 if you count the poisonings too as the UK does. (I'll just say, I think we found one of our major culprits in this one.) I'm thinking overdoses is a major contributor. It's the only way to get to millions in less than 10 years. Car accidents, maybe, but honestly it's not that much compared to the number of young people who die every year. Ditto, with gun related homicide, which is even less than car accidents. I know we may not want to talk about it, but I also noticed major numbers in suicides among young people. (More than vehicle accidents and gun related homicides combined in 2021.) Not sure if that's where the parent comment was going though? So I left that out. It could be a contributor though? The numbers are there, which is what you need to impact averages. My takeaway? Suicides and drug overdoses. Not to be taken lightly.
- Avshalom 4y ago
  Youth suicide has always been pretty bad in the US and it's getting worse https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-... That's from 2019, numbers for the last 3 years are a little harder get but like attempts went up but deaths went down at least in most places but in a couple places deaths shot up a lot? https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/042722-COVID-adolescent-suicide https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/042722-COVID-adolesc... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youth-suicide-attempts-soared-during-pandemic-cdc-report-says-n1270463 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youth-suicide-attempts-...
  - grecy 4y ago
    I was floored when I met some students from NYU who explained they've installed nets in the library because there have been so many suicides from people jumping. Yikes. Not exactly how I remember it.. but yeah. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nyu-bobst-library-suicides-aluminum-screens_n_1812743 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nyu-bobst-library-suicides-al...
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      NYU is also more vertical than most universities in the US. How many university buildings in the US are 12 floors or higher?
      - grecy 4y ago
        I don't care if the building 100 floors - the problem is not the height of the building. The problem is that young people in the US who are clearly privileged enough to attend a very prestigious university are driven to suicide.
        bobthepanda 4y ago
        Tall structures everywhere are suicide magnets because they are fairly accessible and the means of death is easy and (seems) fairly certain. It’s why you can’t build a large bridge with a pedestrian walkway without some kind of safety netting, and that’s globally.
        grecy 4y ago
        Countries by suicides per 100,000 population: US: 14.5 UK: 6.9 Germany: 8.3 The problem IS NOT tall structures. The problem is something about US society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
        yunohn 4y ago
- Jedd 4y ago
  For anyone else not hip with the lingo, KSI seemingly refers to 'Killed or Serious Injury'
- WalterBright 4y ago
  > I hadn't realized that! That's because the media only reports on unusual deaths. For example, sometimes I'll see the emergency crews pulling a body out of Lake Washington. It never makes the news. Drowning deaths are too common.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    Many drownings could have been prevented but it's still a relatively niche cause of death. Unintentional drowning is ten times less frequent than either of falling or motor vehicle crashes, which are about the same frequency. The main way that drownings could be prevented among adults is by enforcing alcohol rules, or having some in the first place, but that goes against the entire theme of American water recreation. Which is sort of the point of the article: dying unnecessarily is part of the culture of America.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      > Many drownings could have been prevented but it's still a relatively niche cause of death. I read somewhere that drownings were the 2nd leading cause of death for children. Cars were #1. People drown mainly because they underestimate the risk of it. I know parents who had their toddler drown. The grief and devastation of that never stops, decade after decade. They had camped near a river bank, and the kid wandered off into the water.
      - jeffbee 4y ago
        In the youngest age group, drowning beats cars even. https://wisqars.cdc.gov/data/lcd/drill-down?causeLabel=Unintentional%20Injury&agegrp=1-4 https://wisqars.cdc.gov/data/lcd/drill-down?causeLabel=Unint... Basically the #1 causes of unintentional death in age order are drowning (<5), cars (5-20) then drugs (20+).
- petesergeant 4y ago
  > Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK UK driving test is difficult, and I suspect drunk driving is much lower because distances are lesser and public transport is better. > suicides Much easier when you have a gun around
  - pacaro 4y ago
    And DUI is treated much more seriously in the UK, consequences are stricter (for example, no "oh you need a car to get to work so you can carry on driving but only too and from work" loophole) and there is greater social opprobrium to drink driving.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - widdershins 4y ago
      Yes, it's fairly common to go to prison for drink-driving here.
- deaddodo 4y ago
  The problem with drug overdoses can be directly tied to the War on Drugs. The entire campaign criminalized addiction vs focusing on rehabilitation, it removed outlets from relief in many states and it has only made illicit drug quality significantly worse (versus removing access to them). This is one of those metrics that really makes US federalism apparent and shows the drastic difference in outcomes from the two major parties. By reviewing the per state metrics[1], you can see that states that take a much lighter hand to drug criminalization and that offer state sponsored relief (California, for instance) have a much lower death rate to ones that take a heavy hand (southern states, New Mexico, etc). 1 - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mor...
  - anon291 4y ago
    Your map tells no such story. In particular, California's low rate cannot be attributed to California's policies, as California's rate is matched by Utah, Idaho, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. You say Southern States have a higher death rate, yet Mississippi (typically considered archetypical of the deep south) a lower per-capita drug overdose rate. Texas, which is a state dominated by the party that does not rule California has an overdose rate about 75% that of California. There's a lot more going on than your analysis would suggest.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  Your drug and gun deaths are totals right? That makes the US look worse than it really is due to the large population difference. If that’s the case then you can divide the US number by about 5 to make it actually comparable (and still terrible).
- jamiegreen 4y ago
  The road deaths surprise me the most , as most American roads are big and straight and most British roads are small and squiggly!
  - arpinum 4y ago
    Big and straight allows higher speeds and less need to pay attention. Lane width is a major contributor to the actual speed driven.
  - desas 4y ago
    I can guess a few reasons: * Cars tend to be bigger i.e. more dangerous in the US * Drink driving seems to be more acceptable in the USA. * The driving test in the UK is much tougher than even the toughest us state * Most of the US don't have mandatory annual vehicle inspections to check they're safe and roadworthy
  - flexie 4y ago
    It's counterintuitive, but broad and straight roads are often more dangerous, as they invite faster driving.
    - Gordonjcp 4y ago
      Faster *inattentive* driving. I'm always kind of surprised how terrified Americans visiting the UK are, when they see the kind of speeds people drive at here. If you're coming here on holiday from the US and you're planning your route using Google Maps, double the time estimate. You won't like the speeds it expects you to drive at.
  - timeon 4y ago
    > roads are big and straight To accommodate big cars.
- JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  Re: Vehicle miles. In the UK a license proves you are competent to drive. In the US a license proves you are not incompetent. The US driving test is set so that over 90% pass, deliberately. Because driving is seen as necessary. Has that changed? Is the UK license standard as high as it once was?
- 908B64B197 4y ago
  > In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that! Guns get an outsized portion of air time on most media. Especially crimes committed by legal weapons against white people. If all gun crimes were covered equally you would hears a lot more about gang violence and illegal weapons. > Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to be expected as there is stringent firearm control in the UK.) I'd be curious to see the difference between gun homicides and homicides. The UK has a huge knife crime problem. > I'm thinking overdoses is a major contributor. It's the only way to get to millions in less than 10 years. Car accidents, maybe, but honestly it's not that much compared to the number of young people who die every year. Ditto, with gun related homicide, which is even less than car accidents. Overdoses and drug related deaths. Drug addiction will shorten a person's lifespan by decades.
sgc 4y ago
As you can see in his chart at [1] from the same thread, drugs, violence, and accidents only explain less than 1/3 of the difference, so the rest would be mainly various disease/lifestyle and care related issues (the overwhelmingly top causes of death in the US [2]). I think those graphs are a easy to misread, the long tail of somewhat poorer results is less dramatic than that younger gap, but actually includes much of the disparity. In [1], you can see that the last cause, cardiovascular, explains more of the difference than drugs, violence, and accidents combined. [1] https://nitter.moomoo.me/pic/orig/media%2FFsjYUjhWcAEatMo.jpg https://nitter.moomoo.me/pic/orig/media%2FFsjYUjhWcAEatMo.jp... [2] "From 2020 to 2021, age-adjusted death rates increased for 8 of the 10 leading causes of death and decreased for 2. The rate increased 3.3% for heart disease (from 168.2 in 2020 to 173.8 in 2021), 1.7% for cancer (144.1 to 146.6), 22.5% for COVID-19 (85.0 to 104.1), 12.3% for unintentional injuries (57.6 to 64.7), 5.9% for stroke (38.8 to 41.1), 2.4% for diabetes (24.8 to 25.4), 9.0% for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (13.3 to 14.5), and 7.1% for kidney disease (12.7 to 13.6)." https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db456.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db456.htm
- pedrosorio 4y ago
  > In [1], you can see that the last cause, cardiovascular, explains more of the difference than drugs, violence, and accidents combined. This is for overall life expectancy, not 5 to 40 death rates though. I would expect cardio-metabolic disease is a significant driver of "early" deaths (say before 65) in those over 40 in the US compared to other developed countries.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - sgc 4y ago
    The point is, despite the twitter/article author's (perhaps sensationalist) claims, the numbers don't support the extreme emphasis on the 5-40 age group. The difference in life expectancy, which is what we are talking about, mainly (~2/3) comes from health and healthcare issues, and is in fact spread out throughout Americans' lives, from about 0-79 years of age.
nradov 4y ago
Yes, there has been a huge increase in the number of accidental fentanyl poisonings. I think this is now the leading cause of accidental death among young people, surpassing even vehicle crashes. Mexican drug cartels have been manufacturing counterfeit prescription painkillers and replacing active ingredients with fentanyl. They have bad quality control and sometimes just put in too much. Fentanyl is so potent that there is only a tiny difference between a recreational dose and a lethal dose, even for opioid addicts who have built up a tolerance. https://peterattiamd.com/anthonyhipolito/ https://peterattiamd.com/anthonyhipolito/
- moremetadata 4y ago
  [dead]
- WalterBright 4y ago
  That's why punishing Big Pharma for making opioid pills has the perverse effect of causing more opioid deaths due to no quality control on the illegal versions.
  - dkqmduems 4y ago
    I mean one could use the money from settlements to you know .... Help?
lostlogin 4y ago
> but rather social problems like drug overdoses, gun violence, and car accidents. I think you could make a reasonable argument that much of these actually are healthcare problems. But either way, investment in looking after people is the solution, what that looks like is probably more controversial.
8note 4y ago
I don't think you have enough information to say this? Certainly that Americans die young, but that could be because American healthcare does worse for people between 5 and 40. Eg. You'd prefer to be in a car crash in Canada, because it's more likely that the healthcare will take better care of you
- zarzavat 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - siquick 4y ago
    > Dangerously understaffed, underfunded. Patients dying in ambulances in hospital car parks because the hospitals (and all its corridors) are full. It’s definitely underfunded (which healthcare system isn’t?) but the rest of this is hyperbole. The UK doesn’t have one hospital.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - tehf0x 4y ago
    Source? My anecdotal experience is that in the US people without much income will simply avoid seeing a doctor until things get Serious because of cost, which makes the quality of care somewhat irrelevant (and my other anecdotal experience was that Uk hospital quality was quite good, and as you mentioned, free).
  - mattlondon 4y ago
    The difference is that in the UK if your kid is sick (article mentions that it is mainly young people dying early) then you can go get your kid seen for free, and not fear about the potential bankruptcy. My personal recent experience with two young kids in the UK in London is that urgent care is very good. So like emergency see-someone-right-now care like sudden fevers, unexplained rashes, injuries etc. You get seen and usually quite quickly (at least for triage). My daughter was 10 weeks old in mid-2022 when she got an infection and we went to A&E (i.e. ER) and were triaged, IV'd with antibiotics, and settled into a single room (with ensuite and space for parents to sleep too) within 2 hours, then stayed for 48 hours with observation from nurses every 4 hours. Someone even offered us tea and coffee and breakfast. All for free. That is pretty good I think. But the issue with the NHS in my opinion is the doctor/GPs. It is very difficult to get an appointment for non-urgent stuff. You have to explain to a receptionist why you need an appointment and often it is an untrained receptionist deciding if you get to see a doctor or not. If you do manage to convince the receptionist, then you are often facing a 2 or 3 week wait for the appointment, which may get cancelled or if you are lucky only be late by 2.5 hours. At our physical doctors building there are three separate clinics all duplicating the same service - there are 3 separate receptionists doing their own separate clinic and work betide you if you go to the wrong desk! Of course as the GPs are so useless, everyone goes to the hospital to try to get seen.
darreninthenet 4y ago
I'm not a doctor so I don't know the answer but could poorer lifestyle choices in mothers/to-be cause an increase in infant mortality?

by whakim 4y ago

bilbo0s 4y ago

Woah! Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK - 5.2. In US - 12.5. (both have tens of thousands of KSI, but the US has over twice as many per cap. In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that!) Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to be expected as there is stringent firearm control in the UK.) Deaths by drug overdose and poisoning in UK - ~5000. In US - um, yeah, well over 120000 if you count the poisonings too as the UK does. (I'll just say, I think we found one of our major culprits in this one.) I'm thinking overdoses is a major contributor. It's the only way to get to millions in less than 10 years. Car accidents, maybe, but honestly it's not that much compared to the number of young people who die every year. Ditto, with gun related homicide, which is even less than car accidents. I know we may not want to talk about it, but I also noticed major numbers in suicides among young people. (More than vehicle accidents and gun related homicides combined in 2021.) Not sure if that's where the parent comment was going though? So I left that out. It could be a contributor though? The numbers are there, which is what you need to impact averages. My takeaway? Suicides and drug overdoses. Not to be taken lightly.

Avshalom 4y ago
Youth suicide has always been pretty bad in the US and it's getting worse https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-... That's from 2019, numbers for the last 3 years are a little harder get but like attempts went up but deaths went down at least in most places but in a couple places deaths shot up a lot? https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/042722-COVID-adolescent-suicide https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/042722-COVID-adolesc... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youth-suicide-attempts-soared-during-pandemic-cdc-report-says-n1270463 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youth-suicide-attempts-...
- grecy 4y ago
  I was floored when I met some students from NYU who explained they've installed nets in the library because there have been so many suicides from people jumping. Yikes. Not exactly how I remember it.. but yeah. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nyu-bobst-library-suicides-aluminum-screens_n_1812743 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nyu-bobst-library-suicides-al...
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    NYU is also more vertical than most universities in the US. How many university buildings in the US are 12 floors or higher?
    - grecy 4y ago
      I don't care if the building 100 floors - the problem is not the height of the building. The problem is that young people in the US who are clearly privileged enough to attend a very prestigious university are driven to suicide.
      - bobthepanda 4y ago
        Tall structures everywhere are suicide magnets because they are fairly accessible and the means of death is easy and (seems) fairly certain. It’s why you can’t build a large bridge with a pedestrian walkway without some kind of safety netting, and that’s globally.
        grecy 4y ago
        Countries by suicides per 100,000 population: US: 14.5 UK: 6.9 Germany: 8.3 The problem IS NOT tall structures. The problem is something about US society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
        yunohn 4y ago
Jedd 4y ago
For anyone else not hip with the lingo, KSI seemingly refers to 'Killed or Serious Injury'
WalterBright 4y ago
> I hadn't realized that! That's because the media only reports on unusual deaths. For example, sometimes I'll see the emergency crews pulling a body out of Lake Washington. It never makes the news. Drowning deaths are too common.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  Many drownings could have been prevented but it's still a relatively niche cause of death. Unintentional drowning is ten times less frequent than either of falling or motor vehicle crashes, which are about the same frequency. The main way that drownings could be prevented among adults is by enforcing alcohol rules, or having some in the first place, but that goes against the entire theme of American water recreation. Which is sort of the point of the article: dying unnecessarily is part of the culture of America.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    > Many drownings could have been prevented but it's still a relatively niche cause of death. I read somewhere that drownings were the 2nd leading cause of death for children. Cars were #1. People drown mainly because they underestimate the risk of it. I know parents who had their toddler drown. The grief and devastation of that never stops, decade after decade. They had camped near a river bank, and the kid wandered off into the water.
    - jeffbee 4y ago
      In the youngest age group, drowning beats cars even. https://wisqars.cdc.gov/data/lcd/drill-down?causeLabel=Unintentional%20Injury&agegrp=1-4 https://wisqars.cdc.gov/data/lcd/drill-down?causeLabel=Unint... Basically the #1 causes of unintentional death in age order are drowning (<5), cars (5-20) then drugs (20+).
petesergeant 4y ago
> Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK UK driving test is difficult, and I suspect drunk driving is much lower because distances are lesser and public transport is better. > suicides Much easier when you have a gun around
- pacaro 4y ago
  And DUI is treated much more seriously in the UK, consequences are stricter (for example, no "oh you need a car to get to work so you can carry on driving but only too and from work" loophole) and there is greater social opprobrium to drink driving.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - widdershins 4y ago
    Yes, it's fairly common to go to prison for drink-driving here.
deaddodo 4y ago
The problem with drug overdoses can be directly tied to the War on Drugs. The entire campaign criminalized addiction vs focusing on rehabilitation, it removed outlets from relief in many states and it has only made illicit drug quality significantly worse (versus removing access to them). This is one of those metrics that really makes US federalism apparent and shows the drastic difference in outcomes from the two major parties. By reviewing the per state metrics[1], you can see that states that take a much lighter hand to drug criminalization and that offer state sponsored relief (California, for instance) have a much lower death rate to ones that take a heavy hand (southern states, New Mexico, etc). 1 - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mor...
- anon291 4y ago
  Your map tells no such story. In particular, California's low rate cannot be attributed to California's policies, as California's rate is matched by Utah, Idaho, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. You say Southern States have a higher death rate, yet Mississippi (typically considered archetypical of the deep south) a lower per-capita drug overdose rate. Texas, which is a state dominated by the party that does not rule California has an overdose rate about 75% that of California. There's a lot more going on than your analysis would suggest.
lostlogin 4y ago
Your drug and gun deaths are totals right? That makes the US look worse than it really is due to the large population difference. If that’s the case then you can divide the US number by about 5 to make it actually comparable (and still terrible).
jamiegreen 4y ago
The road deaths surprise me the most , as most American roads are big and straight and most British roads are small and squiggly!
- arpinum 4y ago
  Big and straight allows higher speeds and less need to pay attention. Lane width is a major contributor to the actual speed driven.
- desas 4y ago
  I can guess a few reasons: * Cars tend to be bigger i.e. more dangerous in the US * Drink driving seems to be more acceptable in the USA. * The driving test in the UK is much tougher than even the toughest us state * Most of the US don't have mandatory annual vehicle inspections to check they're safe and roadworthy
- flexie 4y ago
  It's counterintuitive, but broad and straight roads are often more dangerous, as they invite faster driving.
  - Gordonjcp 4y ago
    Faster *inattentive* driving. I'm always kind of surprised how terrified Americans visiting the UK are, when they see the kind of speeds people drive at here. If you're coming here on holiday from the US and you're planning your route using Google Maps, double the time estimate. You won't like the speeds it expects you to drive at.
- timeon 4y ago
  > roads are big and straight To accommodate big cars.
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Re: Vehicle miles. In the UK a license proves you are competent to drive. In the US a license proves you are not incompetent. The US driving test is set so that over 90% pass, deliberately. Because driving is seen as necessary. Has that changed? Is the UK license standard as high as it once was?
908B64B197 4y ago
> In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that! Guns get an outsized portion of air time on most media. Especially crimes committed by legal weapons against white people. If all gun crimes were covered equally you would hears a lot more about gang violence and illegal weapons. > Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to be expected as there is stringent firearm control in the UK.) I'd be curious to see the difference between gun homicides and homicides. The UK has a huge knife crime problem. > I'm thinking overdoses is a major contributor. It's the only way to get to millions in less than 10 years. Car accidents, maybe, but honestly it's not that much compared to the number of young people who die every year. Ditto, with gun related homicide, which is even less than car accidents. Overdoses and drug related deaths. Drug addiction will shorten a person's lifespan by decades.

sgc 4y ago

As you can see in his chart at [1] from the same thread, drugs, violence, and accidents only explain less than 1/3 of the difference, so the rest would be mainly various disease/lifestyle and care related issues (the overwhelmingly top causes of death in the US [2]). I think those graphs are a easy to misread, the long tail of somewhat poorer results is less dramatic than that younger gap, but actually includes much of the disparity. In [1], you can see that the last cause, cardiovascular, explains more of the difference than drugs, violence, and accidents combined. [1] https://nitter.moomoo.me/pic/orig/media%2FFsjYUjhWcAEatMo.jpg https://nitter.moomoo.me/pic/orig/media%2FFsjYUjhWcAEatMo.jp... [2] "From 2020 to 2021, age-adjusted death rates increased for 8 of the 10 leading causes of death and decreased for 2. The rate increased 3.3% for heart disease (from 168.2 in 2020 to 173.8 in 2021), 1.7% for cancer (144.1 to 146.6), 22.5% for COVID-19 (85.0 to 104.1), 12.3% for unintentional injuries (57.6 to 64.7), 5.9% for stroke (38.8 to 41.1), 2.4% for diabetes (24.8 to 25.4), 9.0% for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (13.3 to 14.5), and 7.1% for kidney disease (12.7 to 13.6)." https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db456.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db456.htm

pedrosorio 4y ago
> In [1], you can see that the last cause, cardiovascular, explains more of the difference than drugs, violence, and accidents combined. This is for overall life expectancy, not 5 to 40 death rates though. I would expect cardio-metabolic disease is a significant driver of "early" deaths (say before 65) in those over 40 in the US compared to other developed countries.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- sgc 4y ago
  The point is, despite the twitter/article author's (perhaps sensationalist) claims, the numbers don't support the extreme emphasis on the 5-40 age group. The difference in life expectancy, which is what we are talking about, mainly (~2/3) comes from health and healthcare issues, and is in fact spread out throughout Americans' lives, from about 0-79 years of age.

nradov 4y ago

Yes, there has been a huge increase in the number of accidental fentanyl poisonings. I think this is now the leading cause of accidental death among young people, surpassing even vehicle crashes. Mexican drug cartels have been manufacturing counterfeit prescription painkillers and replacing active ingredients with fentanyl. They have bad quality control and sometimes just put in too much. Fentanyl is so potent that there is only a tiny difference between a recreational dose and a lethal dose, even for opioid addicts who have built up a tolerance. https://peterattiamd.com/anthonyhipolito/ https://peterattiamd.com/anthonyhipolito/

moremetadata 4y ago
[dead]
WalterBright 4y ago
That's why punishing Big Pharma for making opioid pills has the perverse effect of causing more opioid deaths due to no quality control on the illegal versions.
- dkqmduems 4y ago
  I mean one could use the money from settlements to you know .... Help?

lostlogin 4y ago

> but rather social problems like drug overdoses, gun violence, and car accidents. I think you could make a reasonable argument that much of these actually are healthcare problems. But either way, investment in looking after people is the solution, what that looks like is probably more controversial.

8note 4y ago

I don't think you have enough information to say this? Certainly that Americans die young, but that could be because American healthcare does worse for people between 5 and 40. Eg. You'd prefer to be in a car crash in Canada, because it's more likely that the healthcare will take better care of you

zarzavat 4y ago
[flagged]
- siquick 4y ago
  > Dangerously understaffed, underfunded. Patients dying in ambulances in hospital car parks because the hospitals (and all its corridors) are full. It’s definitely underfunded (which healthcare system isn’t?) but the rest of this is hyperbole. The UK doesn’t have one hospital.
- deleted 4y ago
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- tehf0x 4y ago
  Source? My anecdotal experience is that in the US people without much income will simply avoid seeing a doctor until things get Serious because of cost, which makes the quality of care somewhat irrelevant (and my other anecdotal experience was that Uk hospital quality was quite good, and as you mentioned, free).
- mattlondon 4y ago
  The difference is that in the UK if your kid is sick (article mentions that it is mainly young people dying early) then you can go get your kid seen for free, and not fear about the potential bankruptcy. My personal recent experience with two young kids in the UK in London is that urgent care is very good. So like emergency see-someone-right-now care like sudden fevers, unexplained rashes, injuries etc. You get seen and usually quite quickly (at least for triage). My daughter was 10 weeks old in mid-2022 when she got an infection and we went to A&E (i.e. ER) and were triaged, IV'd with antibiotics, and settled into a single room (with ensuite and space for parents to sleep too) within 2 hours, then stayed for 48 hours with observation from nurses every 4 hours. Someone even offered us tea and coffee and breakfast. All for free. That is pretty good I think. But the issue with the NHS in my opinion is the doctor/GPs. It is very difficult to get an appointment for non-urgent stuff. You have to explain to a receptionist why you need an appointment and often it is an untrained receptionist deciding if you get to see a doctor or not. If you do manage to convince the receptionist, then you are often facing a 2 or 3 week wait for the appointment, which may get cancelled or if you are lucky only be late by 2.5 hours. At our physical doctors building there are three separate clinics all duplicating the same service - there are 3 separate receptionists doing their own separate clinic and work betide you if you go to the wrong desk! Of course as the GPs are so useless, everyone goes to the hospital to try to get seen.

darreninthenet 4y ago

I'm not a doctor so I don't know the answer but could poorer lifestyle choices in mothers/to-be cause an increase in infant mortality?