Skip to main content

US life expectancy drops for second year in a row

Life expectancy in the United States has dropped again following last year's decline, which marked the first downturn in more than two decades.
On average, Americans can now expect to live 78.6 years, a statistically significant drop of 0.1 year, according to a report on 2016 data published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics. Women can now expect to live a full five years longer than men: 81.1 years vs. 76.1 years.
The last time the agency recorded a multiyear drop was in 1962 and 1963.
"I still don't think you can call it a trend, because you really need more than two data points to call something a trend," said Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But it's certainly concerning to see this two years in a row."
Anderson said he is particularly concerned about drug overdose deaths, most of which are opioid-related.
"We have data for almost half of 2017 at this point. It's still quite provisional, but it suggests that we're in for another increase" in drug-related deaths, he said. "If we're not careful, we could end up with declining life expectancy for three years in a row, which we haven't seen since the Spanish flu, 100 years ago."
The 10 leading causes of death remain unchanged and now account for 74.1% of all deaths in the United States, according to the report. Age-adjusted death rates decreased for seven of the top 10 leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease. The rates increased for unintentional injuries, Alzheimer's disease and suicide.
Unintentional injuries include accidental drug overdoses, which were the official cause of 63,600 deaths last year.
"It just keeps going up and up and appears to be accelerating," Anderson said.
"In the past, those increases have been more than completely offset by declines in cardiovascular mortality," such as heart disease and stroke, he said. "What's happened in recent years, since about 2010 or so, is a substantial slowdown in the rate of decline for cardiovascular mortality. It seems to be leveling off to some extent, and as a result, the drug overdose deaths are more prominent in the overall picture of mortality."
A country's infant mortality rate (the number of births compared with the number of deaths of children under age 1) "is generally regarded as a good indicator of the overall health of a population," according to the report. In the United States, this rate "changed from 589.5 infant deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 587.0 in 2016, but this change was not statistically significant."
Opioids now kill more people than breast cancer
Opioids now kill more people than breast cancer

The biggest takeaway from the report is that heart disease and cancer are still far and away the top killers of both men and women in the United States. The good news is that there are three things you can do to drastically reduce your risk of developing both: eat right, exercise and don't smoke.
It sounds like simple advice, but as anyone who has ever tried knows, it is easier said than done.

Reference:http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/health/us-life-expectancy-study/index.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pollution putting million of infants at risk of brain damage, UNICEF says

(CNN) Almost 17 million infants worldwide are breathing toxic air, potentially affecting their brain development, according to a UNICEF  report  published Wednesday. More than two-thirds of the affected infants -- over 12 million -- live in South Asia and are exposed to pollution six times higher than recommended limits. Particulates in pollution can damage brain tissue and impair cognitive development, the report states, with potential lifelong consequences. Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to child health globally. Pneumonia claims  920,000 children  under the age of 5 every year, and the risk is greatest for those under the age of 1. Damaging infant brains The brain undergoes critical growth in the first 1,000 days of life,   forming foundational neural connections in this stage. Exposure to air pollution during this time can therefore impact development, the report states. Breathing in Delhi air equivalent to smok...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate change is already here, and heat waves are having the biggest effect, report says By Nina Avramova, CNN Updated 6:31 PM ET, Wed November 28, 2018

(CNN) Climate change is here and affecting our health, with extreme heat in particular also having effects on productivity, food supply and disease transmission, a new global report finds. More people than ever are vulnerable to heat exposure globally, and numbers are rising, according to The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change  report  by an international group of researchers, published Wednesday. It comes just days after climate reports from the US government and the United Nations said that greater action on climate change is needed, with the UN report showing that in  2017 , the highest levels of carbon were emitted globally. Older people in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean are most vulnerable because of larger aging and urban populations there. The latest report estimates that 42% of over-65s in Europe and 43% in the the Eastern Mediterranean are already vulnerable to heat exposure; 38% of this group is vulnerable in Africa and 34% ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Sanskrit word Karma means "actions" and refers to fundamental eternal( Hindu) principle that one's moral actions have unavoidable and automatic effects on one's fortunes in this life and here after i.e conditions of re -birth in the next .(HINDI ALSO )

कर्म प्रधान विश्व करि राखा ,जो जस करहि सो तस ही  फल चाखा  कर्म का संस्कृत में शाब्दिक अर्थ है हमारे द्वारा किये गए काम।  The Sanskrit word Karma means "actions" and refers to fundamental eternal( Hindu) principle that one's moral actions have unavoidable and automatic effects on one's fortunes in this life and here after i.e conditions of re -birth in the next . कार्मिक सिद्धांत मूल सनातन सिद्धांत रहा है भारत धर्मी समाज का  जिसके अनुसार हमारे द्वारा  किये अच्छे बुरे कर्म अपना अच्छा या बुरा प्रभाव ज़रूर छोड़ते हैं। ये कर्म हमारे भाग्य का निर्धारण न सिर्फ इस जन्म में बल्कि हमारे शरीर छोड़ने के बाद आगे मिलने वाले जन्मों में भी करते हैं। इनके असर से बचा नहीं जा सकता।  कर्म किसी भाग्य या हाथ की लकीरों का नाम नहीं है हमारे ही पूर्व जन्मों का सहज परिणाम है जो हमें आगे पीछे मिलता रहता है.इसीलिए कहा गया है : कर्म गति टारै  नाहिं  टरै , मुनि वशिष्ठ से पंडित ग्यानी ,   सिधि(सोच ) के लगन धरी...
Post a Comment
Read more