Rich White Men Doing the Best in Fight to Extend
Longevity in U.S.
For poor, women and minorities the picture not so rosy
April 22, 2008 - Life expectancy in the U.S. is on
a continual increase, at least for financially comfortable white men.
For the poor, women and minorities the picture is not so rosy, according
a research published in PloS Medicine. Overall life expectancy in the
U.S. increased more than seven years for men and more than six years for
women between 1960 and 2000. Over the same four decades, however, this
report finds the gains not reaching many parts of the country; rather,
the life expectancy of a significant segment of the population is
actually declining or at best stagnating.
Those with less than high school education and
females dont age so well in Harvard study
March 11, 2008 Yes, we are living longer in the
U.S. but if you thought that applied to everyone, you are in for a
surprise. Now we learn this expanse in life expectancy only applies to
those with more than a high school education. And, women fare worse than
men the less educated women actually show a slight decline in life
expectancy at age 25.
Researchers find that middle-aged misery spans the
globe, not sure why elderly are happy
Jan. 29, 2008
This new, long-term study of mortality trends in
U.S. counties is by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health
(HSPH) and the University of Washington found that 4% of the male
population and 19% of the female population experienced either decline
or stagnation in mortality beginning in the 1980s.
For an
earlier report on this study published in March, see sidebar.
There has always been a view in U.S. health policy
that inequalities are more tolerable as long as everyones health is
improving. There is now evidence that there are large parts of the
population in the United States whose health has been getting worse for
about two decades, said Majid Ezzati, Associate Professor of
International Health at HSPH and lead author of the study.
The majority of the counties that had the worst
downward swings in life expectancy were in the Deep South, along the
Mississippi River, and in Appalachia, extending into the southern
portion of the Midwest and into Texas.
The researchers analyzed mortality data from the
National Center for Health Statistics and population data from the U.S.
Census Bureau between 1959 and 2001. The study is the first to look at
mortality trends in the U.S. by county over such a long period of time.
(County data is the smallest measurable unit for which mortality data is
available.) The National Center for Health Statistics stopped providing
data after 2001.
The results showed that, between 1961 and 1999,
average life expectancy in the U.S. increased from 66.9 to 74.1 years
for men and from 73.5 to 79.6 for women.
Looking at individual counties, however, the
researchers found that beginning in the 1980s, the best-off counties
continued to improve but there was a stagnation or worsening of life
expectancy in the worst-off counties--what the researchers refer to as
the reversal of fortunes.
As a result, while men in the best-off counties
lived 9.0 years longer than those in the worst-off counties in 1983, by
1999 that gap had increased to 11.0 years; for women the 1983 life
expectancy gap of 6.7 years increased to 7.5 years by 1999.
Over the past few decades, life expectancy in
high-income countries around the world has gradually risen, with few
exceptions.
Given the consistent trend of declining mortality
rates in high-income countries, the results of this study, which show
large segments of the American population experiencing stagnating or
worsening health conditions, are particularly troubling.
Ezzati said, The finding that 4% of the male
population and 19% of the female population experienced either decline
or stagnation in mortality is a major public health concern.
Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for
Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and
co-author of the study, added that life expectancy decline is something
that has traditionally been considered a sign that the health and social
systems have failed, as has been the case in parts of Africa and Eastern
Europe. The fact that is happening to a large number of Americans should
be a sign that the U.S. health system needs serious rethinking.
The researchers also analyzed data on deaths from
different diseases and showed that the stagnation and worsening
mortality was primarily a result of an increase in diabetes, cancers and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, combined with a slowdown or halt
in improvements in cardiovascular mortality. An increase in HIV/AIDS and
homicides also played a role for men, but not for women.
The diseases that are responsible for this
troubling trend seem to be most related to smoking, high blood pressure,
and obesity.
Smoking and blood pressure have a long history of
being controlled through both personal and population strategies. There
is good evidence on relatively low-cost and effective ways of dealing
with these issues if one of the health systems imperatives becomes to
close this widening life expectancy gap, said Ezzati.
This research was supported by a cooperative
agreement, awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the Association of Schools of Public Health
The study appears in the April 22, 2008, edition of
the open-access journal PLoS Medicine and is freely. (Click
Here)
April 22, 2008 - Although life expectancy has
been increasing in the U.S. for most people, there is a growing
disparity in mortality depending on race, income and geography,
according to a study published on Monday in the online journal PLoS
Medicine, the
New York Times reports. For the study, lead author Majid Ezzati, an
associate professor of international health at
Harvard University, and colleagues analyzed life expectancy in all
3,141 U.S. counties from 1961 to 1999, the latest year for which data
were available (Bakalar, New York Times, 4/22). The data were taken from
the
National Center for Health Statistics and the
U.S. Census Bureau (AP/Long
Island Newsday, 4/21).
Findings
The study found that for the nation as a whole,
life expectancy increased by seven years among men and by six years
among women (Russell,
San Francisco Chronicle, 4/22). Life expectancy from 1961 to 1999
increased from 66.9 years to 74.1 years for men, and from 73.5 years to
79.6 years for women (Brown,
Washington Post, 4/22).
However, the study found that in the last two
decades of the millennium, 19% of women and 4% of men in the U.S. saw
either no change or a decline in life expectancy (Kornblum,
USA Today, 4/22). Researchers found that life expectancy for women
declined by an average of 1.3 years from 1983 to 1999 in 180 counties,
while men's life expectancy decline by 1.3 years in 11 counties (AP/Long
Island Newsday, 4/21). According to the study, "The majority of these
counties were in the Deep South, along the Mississippi River and in
Appalachia, extending into the southern portion of the Midwest and into
Texas" (Fox,
Reuters/Boston Globe, 4/22).
When comparing the 2.5% of counties with the
lowest life expectancies and the 2.5% of counties with the highest life
expectancies, the difference in life expectancy was 11 years for men and
7.5 years for women in 1999, compared with nine years for men and 6.7
years for women in 1983 (New York Times, 4/22).
Causes
Ezzati said that race and poverty account for
some of the disparity, but not all of it (USA Today, 4/22). According to
the study, "Female mortality increased in a large number of counties,
primarily because of chronic diseases related to smoking, overweight and
obesity, and high blood pressure" (Reuters/Boston Globe, 4/22).
Obesity-related illnesses, such as adult-onset diabetes and
hypertension, also contributed to increases in male and female
mortality. HIV/AIDS and homicide were significant factors in male life
expectancy declines (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/22).
Researchers said that they do not believe access
to health care led to all of the declines in life expectancy. Study
co-author Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said, "Even if everyone
were insured, we'd still be seeing most of the pattern that we're seeing
here" (Francis, Wall Street Journal, 4/22). The researchers said that
race appears to be less of a factor than income in the disparity
(Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/22).
Comments
"What's driving the disparity is the worsening of the worst off," Ezzati
said, adding, "In the U.S., there has always been a view, stated or
unstated, that we can live with some inequality if everyone is getting
better. This is the first sign that not everyone is getting better" (New
York Times, 4/22). Ezzati said he hopes the study will be a catalyst to
some "pretty serious discussion at the national, state and arguably
county level" about how to combat disparities.
James Marks of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said, "These counties may be the
canary in the coal mine [indicating] the deterioration in the U.S.
health standings relative to the rest of the world" (USA Today, 4/22).
Murray said, "I think this is a harbinger. This
is not going to be isolated to this set of counties, is my guess"
(Washington Post, 4/22).
For poor, women and minorities the picture not so rosy