Common understanding is that due to advanced in healthcare and technology and nuitrition, life expectancy has been rising. Women tend to have a longer life expectancy than men. A recent study on mortality rates by counties in the United States paints a very different – and rather depressing – picture.
The study by Majid Ezzati, Ari B. Friedman, Sandeep C. Kulkarni, and Christopher J. L. Murray takes a hard look at actual county-by-county mortality data to uncover some disconcerting trends. The PLos Medicine paper is The Reversal of Fortunes: Trends in County Mortality and Cross-County Mortality Disparities in the United States. In the map above, you can compare mortality rates for men and women for the periods of 1961-1983 to those of 1983-1999. The dark red areas are decreasing life expectancy while dark green areas are growing life expectancy. Light red is below average but not decreasing and light green is above average but not increasing. White areas are average. Note the strong regional differences but also the nosedive in life expectancy for women.
The US is one of the most advanced nations on the planet but access to quality care is becoming limited The cyberpunk dystopia is unfortunately becoming more and more increasingly accurate as a model for American society when it comes to access to healthcare. Wealthier areas have always had more access to superior care and the gap between wealthy and the poor is widening as the middle class shrinks but also as many find their insurance – if they can afford it – costs more and covers less.
The gap between male and female life expectancy is frightening as women naturally have higher expectancy but we are seeing a reveral.
What is causing the downturn? For men, increased murder rates and HIV infections have has a real effect on life expectancy (but not for women). Other culprits are factors for men and for women:
The researchers looked at differences in death rates between all counties in US states plus the District of Columbia over four decades, from 1961 to 1999. They obtained the data on number of deaths from the National Center for Health Statistics, and they obtained data on the number of people living in each county from the US Census. The NCHS did not provide death data after 2001. They broke the death rates down by sex and by disease to assess trends over time for women and men, and for different causes of death.
Over these four decades, the researchers found that the overall US life expectancy increased from 67 to 74 years of age for men and from 74 to 80 years for women. Between 1961 and 1983 the death rate fell in both men and women, largely due to reductions in deaths from cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke). During this same period, 1961-1983, the differences in death rates among/across different counties fell. However, beginning in the early 1980s the differences in death rates among/across different counties began to increase. The worst-off counties no longer experienced a fall in death rates, and in a substantial number of counties, mortality actually increased, especially for women, a shift that the researchers call "the reversal of fortunes." This stagnation in the worst-off counties was primarily caused by a slowdown or halt in the reduction of deaths from cardiovascular disease coupled with a moderate rise in a number of other diseases, such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes, in both men and women, and a rise in HIV/AIDS and homicide in men. The researchers’ key finding, therefore, was that the differences in life expectancy across different counties initially narrowed and then widened.
This is scary stuff as the trends increase. The folks at io9 offered their own take on the results: So basically there is a growing health gap in the United States. Despite its status as a developed nation, the country is likely to harbor more and more communities where life expectancy is more like a developing nation. We’re looking at a future where it’s going to be increasingly difficult to say whether a country is "developing" or "developed" since it will exhibit characteristics of both.
Welcome to the future and it sucks.
All the best,
Brian
Taipei, Taiwan (25 May 2008)
METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS
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Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com]Certified Hypnotherapist
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Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
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