U.S. Life Expectancy Is Declining, Says Study

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Life expectancy is assumed to have increased in the past few decades. However, life expectancy since 2017 has dropped.

In a new study conducted, it was found that there are many factors as to why life expectancy in the U.S. is declining. The reasons behind this decline are very alarming and it would benefit every U.S. citizen to understand why. 

In an article published in Science Times, it was found that most of the working-age Americans aged 25 to 64 are among the group who are affected by the decline of life expectancy. Most of these Americans have the risk of dying from suicide, drug abuse, hypertension, and more. This study is published in the journal JAMA Network.

The findings of the study are labeled as an American phenomenon. Steven H. Woolf, co-author of the study and presently connected to Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, said that the decline of life expectancy in the U.S. is falling rapidly. Moreover, he also said that this phenomenon is not observed in working-age adults in other first world countries. 

It has been known by experts that the health of Americans is inferior compared to other wealthy nations. Woolf even stated that the death-rates of American working-age adults is on the rise. The research also shows that since the beginning of the 1980s there have been studies suggesting that the health of Americans is declining compared to other countries.

There are also previous studies that show that U.S. life expectancy has increased from 1959 to 2014. However, in 2014 it was found that life expectancy among the Americans has slowly declined. This study is the result of at least five decades of data gathered on life expectancy in the United States.

There are factors and health issues as to why U.S. life expectancy has decreased and these are drug overdose, suicide, alcohol, and other organ failure related diseases most especially among the working-age Americans and those who did not finish or complete high school. This phenomenon is very significant in places like New England, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. 

These regions are among the most hard-hit victims of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing sector because of the ongoing opioid epidemic and other health concerns that battered the places since then. Moreover, it was found out also that more than one-third of the excess deaths occurred in Ohio Valley. Despite this decline in the U.S., the life expectancy in the Pacific Coast has increased from 2010 to 2017.

There were previous studies conducted already which show that life expectancy in the U.S. began to lose pace due to the opioid epidemic, shrinking of the middle class, and the inequality of income. This problem began in the early 1980s. 

Even though during the early 1980s, there were economic turns in those years. However, it was suspected that one of the reasons also why life expectancy in the U.S. began to decline in the past decade decade is because of the lack of support to the struggling families. 

Families who are less fortunate in other countries are supported by the government, according to Woolf. However, American families who are struggling in their daily needs must support or fend themselves. This means that the lack of social services is among the reasons for the decrease in life expectancy. Women and children are most likely to be affected by this since they are the most vulnerable groups.

According to Howard Koh, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said that the findings of the new study are the most detailed at the present. Koh said that one of the solutions in this problem is to embrace reality by accepting and admitting the reasons behind the decline of U.S. life expectancy. He also suggested that there is a need to pay more attention to social services and strong community networks. 

A few years ago, it was expected that life expectancy in the U.S. will increase but study shows now that is in the irony of what is expected due to health reasons and lack of support. Other countries spend more on healthcare because they believed that this is one of the factors that would help to increase life expectancy. Social services will help boost the lives of persons living in a country if they feel that they are valued and cared for.