November 27, 2019 — We’ve only just begun. That was once a hopeful refrain. But now, it applies to a worrisome trend. Working age people in the U.S. are dying at rates that are unprecedented among wealthy countries. This finding comes from a stunning, comprehensive study of a reversal in U.S. life expectancy. Because it’s now in its third […]
July 23, 2019 — The trend is unmistakable now. Life expectancy in the U.S. is stalling. A new analysis in Population and Development Review brings a fresh perspective to this troubling trend. The foundations lie in rural white America and the fuels for these trends are obesity, opioids, and smoking. Poor Prospects for Rural, Non-Hispanic Whites Irma Elo and […]
December 3, 2018 — The headlines are full of it. “Drug overdoses and suicides are causing American life expectancy to drop,” says the Atlantic, for example. But the real story is much more complex. Heart disease and obesity are playing a significant role, too. Big Increases, Small Numbers Without a doubt, big increases in drug overdoses and suicide are […]
January 16, 2018 — American lives have grown shorter for the second year in a row. When CDC issued these statistics in December, all the talk was about drug overdoses. That’s certainly a factor. But a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to growing obesity rates for peeling away nearly a year […]
