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The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations
- kuloku 1y ago[flagged]
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- msarrel 1y agoThat's only if you include the entire population.
- standeven 1y agoIs there any reason you shouldn’t include the entire population?
- pieds 1y ago> Comparison data also showed that at every wealth level in the U.S., mortality rates were higher than those in the parts of Europe the researchers studied. The nation’s wealthiest Americans have shorter lifespans on average than the wealthiest Europeans; in some cases, the wealthiest Americans have survival rates on par with the poorest Europeans in western parts of Europe such as Germany, France and the Netherlands. https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-04-02/wealth-mortality-gap https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-04-02/wealth-mortality-gap The US also have less healthy years. > Just as in other countries, chronic conditions like heart disease are major factors in how many years Americans remain alive but in poor health. But, the authors add, a high burden of mental health and behavioral conditions — which the WHO groups together, and include depression, anxiety and addictions to alcohol and drugs — are also weighing heavily on our health span, as well as curtailing life expectancy in the U.S. > Underpinning both chronic diseases and what are sometimes called deaths or diseases of “despair,” such as addiction, is the prevalence of loneliness, stress and inequality in the U.S., Gurven says. “It’s hard to avoid that living in a highly unequal society is stressful and that takes a toll on our health in so many ways,” he says. That inequality affects not only access to health care, but can also be seen in how little opportunity there is for Americans in many parts of the country to get physical activity or healthy meals in their busy days, helping to fuel the obesity epidemic, which, in turn, curtails health span. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-us-has-the-biggest-lifespan-health-span-gap-in-the-world-new-study-shows-were-living-longer-lives--but-not-in-good-health-170707093.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-us-has-the-biggest-lifes...
- knowitnone 1y agoUS culture actively promotes alcohol use. Go to a college party and all their games revolve around drinking
- nicoburns 1y agoProbably less so than in most European countries. I'd suggest that more likely causes for this are: - Poor diet - Low levels of exercise due to car dependence - Difficulty accessing healthcare - General lack of safety net for the poor
- BadCookie 1y agoI’m not sure if “difficulty accessing healthcare” captures the whole problem. Even if you live next door to a hospital, you still don’t know how much it will cost you if you check yourself in. Sure, there is some theoretical maximum out of pocket, but are you certain that the hospital is in network with your insurance? Are you sure that every provider you will see and every test or scan you have done will be treated as in network? I once had a doctor order a test at a hospital that he assured me was in network. The hospital got pre-authorization from my insurance company for me to have the test done. I had the test done. My insurance company then denied me any benefit because they said afterward that I went out of network … and there are millions of stories like mine. Not to mention that even if you manage to stay in network, lots of people cannot afford even the max out of pocket that creeps up faster than inflation every year. I have had some family members decide that they will just accept that they are going to die in an emergency situation because “if it’s my time, it’s my time” and they don’t want their life savings to get vacuumed up by some hospital administrators. This is not merely theoretical… one person in my life is dead now who probably would have lived if he had felt comfortable seeking medical care.
- soperj 1y agoYou're saying the same thing.
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- scottLobster 1y agoThe "Regional Differences" section is behind a paywall, but for an overview, here's a map of all-cause mortality in the US by county: https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/mortality/map?cod=247&cod_options=cod_15&ratetype=aa&ratetype_options=ratetype_2&race=00&race_options=race_6&sex=0&sex_options=sex_3&age=001&age_options=age_11&ruralurban=0&ruralurban_options=ruralurban_3&yeargroup=5&yeargroup_options=year5yearmort_1&statefips=99&statefips_options=area_states&county=01000&county_options=counties_alabama&comparison=states_to_us&comparison_options=comparison_state&radio_comparison=areas&radio_comparison_options=cods_or_areas https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/mortality/map?cod=...
- Arubis 1y agoNot to worry, we'll fix this on our end by ensuring that we no longer keep accurate track of anything science or health-adjacent. A few years out comparisons like this will be impossible and meaningless.
- amelius 1y ago> To gauge US health, life expectancy — the average number of years a person is expected to live — is a good place to start. Ok, but it is a lagging indicator. Hopefully there are faster ways to measure it.
- invalidOrTaken 1y agoThe U.S. is a multicultural society. Aggregate measures don't tell much.
- lordgroff 1y agoSo is Canada -- more so in fact -- and yet...
- invalidOrTaken 1y agoThat's my point though: and yet what?
- lordgroff 1y agoIt seemed to me that you were attributing the lower life expectancy due to US' diversity compared to many wealthy nations. My point was: Canada is similarly diverse and yet its life expectancy is higher.
- invalidOrTaken 1y agoNo, I was saying the diversity of American society means that aggregate measures won't tell us much. If Canada is similarly diverse (that seems contested, but accepting it for argument's sake) then aggregate measures there also won't tell us much.
- lapcat 1y ago> So is Canada -- more so in fact No, that's not a fact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada?#Visible_minority_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada?#Visibl...
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- AlgorithmicTime 1y ago[dead]
- bobxmax 1y agoGun violence is responsible for nearly 2% of annual deaths in the US, I imagine that might skew the statistics slightly. But yes, US poverty is much worse than poverty in other countries. But the flip side is also true - it's generally better being rich in America than in Canada, for example.
- bestouff 1y agoNot even that, even rich people have better life expectancy elsewhere.
- rwyinuse 1y agoI would bet that unhealthy eating habits and car-centric city design affect rich people as well. Use of sugar and fatty processed foods appears to be out of control in America compared to your average EU country.
- JPLeRouzic 1y ago> "US poverty is much worse than poverty in other countries" You must be restricting your thinking to other Western countries, because there are a lot of areas on Earth that look like hell. At least no part of the US is in a constant state of war.
- bobxmax 1y agoThe post you're commenting on is comparing the US to other developed countries.
- JPLeRouzic 1y agoPlease, show me where it compares the US to other --developed-- countries.
- bobxmax 1y agoThe title: "The United States has lower life expectancy than most similarly wealthy nations"
- tptacek 1y agoThe important bit of this article is the graph labeled "Varied Causes". Factor COVID-19 out, and everything but social causes (overdoses, traffic fatalities, homicide) is practically a rounding error. The one significant distinctive contributor is CVD, and CVD is extremely unevenly distributed in the United States; the northern states have CVD death rates akin to those of Europe, the southern states less so.
- jandrewrogers 1y agoWe probably shouldn't be including COVID at all in 2025 since it isn't relevant. That is like using all cause mortality models from 1944.
- throw0101c 1y agoPre-vaccines, COVID death rates were roughtly the same for Democrats and Republicans. Post-vaccine, Republican rates were higher than Ds: * https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2807617 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar... * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590229623000199 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259022962...
- nostrademons 1y agoIt's quite an achievement of modern medicine that the vast majority of early deaths in the U.S. now amount to various forms of "killing oneself", or occasionally "killing other people near you". Accidental, unpreventable acts of nature (or God, depending on your persuasion) have basically dropped out of the statistics. I wonder how much of this is because of America's embrace of liberty. If you give people choices, some of them will inevitably make stupid choices.
- tptacek 1y agoIn particular, this points away from our health care system as a significant life expectancy causal factor. The biggest health-related contributor to life expectancy, by a long ways --- really, the only "big" one --- is CVD. But CVD deaths in Mississippi look nothing like CVD deaths in Connecticut, despite the same health care structure in both locales; Connecticut's CVD deaths look like Europe's, despite drastically different systems.
- notjoemama 1y agoWhy? > The biggest difference in death rates has been in people aged 15–49 (see ‘Early deaths’). Among these younger people, the death rate has been falling much more slowly in the United States than in peer countries — and it spiked drastically owing to COVID-19. “More people die younger,” says Lynne Cotter, a senior health-policy researcher at KFF. And because young deaths erase more years of life than do older ones, they drag down overall life expectancy. > Overall, chronic conditions — heart disease, cancer, stroke and respiratory disease — take up four out of five spots on the country’s list of biggest killers. > As of 2022, about 42% of adults were considered obese in the United States, compared with 27% in the United Kingdom and 5.5% in Japan. Obesity increases the risks of developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many other conditions. > Research supports Kennedy’s argument that ultra-processed foods might be partly to blame for poor health. Their consumption has been linked to increased risks of obesity and some other chronic diseases, and is relatively high in the United States. Such foods comprise an estimated 58% of US daily energy intake — similar to that in the United Kingdom, but greater than the 48% in Canada and 31% in France3. > Deaths from substance misuse are explained mainly by overdoses of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl — part of the US opioid crisis. Many Americans are killed in traffic accidents, partly because they tend to spend proportionately more time driving, and in bigger cars, than people in many other nations. It looks like obesity promotes chronic disease and the younger demographic is dragging the life expectancy down. Where? https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/mortality/map?cod=247&cod_options=cod_15&ratetype=aa&ratetype_options=ratetype_2&race=00&race_options=race_6&sex=0&sex_options=sex_3&age=001&age_options=age_11&ruralurban=0&ruralurban_options=ruralurban_3&yeargroup=5&yeargroup_options=year5yearmort_1&statefips=99&statefips_options=area_states&county=01000&county_options=counties_alabama&comparison=states_to_us&comparison_options=comparison_state&radio_comparison=areas&radio_comparison_options=cods_or_areas https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/mortality/map?cod=... A higher concentration occurs in the south eastern quadrant of the US. This as I recall coincides with obesity rates. What can I do personally? I guess eat less processed food, cook more at home, walk more, or engage in fun phisically active time. Even cleaning the house, yard care, home gardening, simple hikes, or walking while shopping can help. Chosing stairs over elevators, that kind of thing. What can the government do to help? Maybe regulating sugar additives and plastic use in food containers? Limiting the use of seed oils in convenience foods, in favor of healthier options? Build back a strong middle class would go a long way towards preventing the other causes too. Drugs and gun deaths are linked to poverty. The closer the middle class is pushed to the poverty line the more those things increase. I suppose there's some merit to preventing the illegal import (smuggling?) of drugs like fentanyl, which in that case requires a harder stance on import from China. I dunno guys. I'm throwing darts at a wall here...
- jandrewrogers 1y agoIn the case of the US it is somewhat unhelpful to look at the "United States" as a unit of measurement. There is ~10 year life expectancy difference between individual States and most of the risk factors mentioned are a function of State policy, not Federal. It also maps to large differences in population genetics across regions e.g. the famous observation that "the only person that lives longer than a Japanese woman is a Japanese woman in America" is doing a lot of work in Hawaii. There is a well-known inverse correlation between obesity and elevation which is doing work in the Mountain West. While the lifestyle of many Americans leaves a lot to be desired, I do recognize that many parts of the US have weather/climate that is prohibitive for outdoor activity much of the year and these places tend to be fat. If you look at the life expectancies in parts of the US that are known for having human friendly weather and outdoor activity, they tend to be among the highest in the country with low obesity rates to match, but this is confounded by geography and genetics. It is complicated. The causes are sufficiently diverse and regional that the solutions need to be local.
- cherryteastain 1y agoIf we're cherrypicking like that I'm sure you can find some Japanese prefecture or Swiss canton that has 10 years+ higher life expectancy than Hawaii's 79.9 years, the US state with the longest life expectancy.
- alephnerd 1y agoYou absolutely should do the same spatial inequality analysis in Japan and Italy as well (in fact, this is the norm in Italy's policymaking space due to the documented north-south divide). Heck, this is called out in the Nature article as well if you read TFA. The US (330m), Japan (120m), and Italy (60m) are all large countries, and in the US and Italy's case, extremely federalized with social service delivery responsibilities falling onto subnational governments. And for large developed countries like the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, etc their developmental indicators have largely converged at a macro-level (the difference in living standards between countries with a national HDI of 0.900, 0.920, and 0.940 are marginal), but spatial inequality continues to act as a persistent laggard. Outliers matter. This is like statistics/EDA 101. P.S. If you do EDA on Japan versus US from an HDI perspective, you find that the Southern Kanto region (ie. Greater Tokyo) tends to skew Japanese statistics - with a subnational HDI comparable to MA - but the rest of the subnational regions of Japan have HDIs comparable to Tennessee (0.890-0.900) or Florida (0.920-0.930). What this highlights is that public service delivery is stronger in the Greater Tokyo region than the rest of Japan. And this is unsurprisingly a major topic of discussion in Japanese policymaking as well, as the poorer regions have seen a massive youth flight to Tokyo. Same with the less developed regions of the US as well. When you do a similar spatial analysis of the US, you find the Deep South (MS, AL, AR, LA), Appalachia (WV, TN, KY), and MO continuing to lag. You also end up identifying rust belt states like MI and OH starting to lag. The interest thing is, the Deep South and Appalachia didn't seem to lag in the early 1990s compared to the rest of the states, but remained stuck at 1990s levels while other states improved significantly in the 2000s and 2010s, and it was these states that regressed the most in the COVID years (2020-2022) [0]. My running theory is that these states were the kinds of states where low value single factory/industry towns (eg. Textiles) were most prominent, and were the worst hit by a mixture of NAFTA, China Shock, and the Great Recession. This would also explain why GA, NC, and SC didn't see the same laggardness despite being comparable with the rest of the south in the 1990s - Atlanta, Charlotte, RTP, Greenville, and Columbia were industrialized enough in high value industries like automotive and power systems and had significant additional industries like Finance and Tech that allowed them to upskill and diversify. [0] - https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/table/healthindex/USA/?levels=1+4&years=~1992+1991+1990&interpolation=0&extrapolation=0 https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/table/healthindex/USA/?levels...
- stevenjgarner 1y agohttps://archive.ph/lIIns https://archive.ph/lIIns [Paywall Bypass]
- jimt1234 1y ago> One of the biggest drivers of those deadly conditions is obesity That jumped out at me, because, unfortunately, it seems it's become unpopular, or even offensive, to claim there's a link between obesity and poor health/lower life expectancy. I've heard of doctors refusing to recommend weight loss to their patients for fear of being accused of "body shaming".
- keiferski 1y agoDoes this actually happen in real life, or only in online outrage anecdotes? My guess is that doctors typically understand that the patient already knows they’re obese, and therefore tries to get them to do something, anything, that’ll help.
- veggieroll 1y agoThis happened to me. I switched doctors.
- keiferski 1y agoWhat happened to you? The doctor refused to diagnose you as obese, someone else, or…? Your comment is unclear.
- veggieroll 1y agoI went to my doctor as someone overweight bordering on obese and asked for help. I told him my plan for losing weight. But, he told me I didn't need to lose weight, because being overweight isn't bad for your health. Eventually I lost 70 lbs and found a new doctor.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- slaw 1y ago> The United States has higher mortality than comparable rich countries in most age groups, the the biggest gap is those in their late teens or early adulthood. > Five times more people died as a result of substance misuse in the United States in 2021 than the comparable country average.