The US had been making steady progress. Life expectancy increased by nearly 10 years over the last half century — from 69.9 years in 1959, to 78.9 years in 2016.
But the pace of this increase slowed over time, while other high income countries continued to show a steady rise in life expectancy.
After 2010, US life expectancy plateaued and in 2014 it began reversing, dropping for three consecutive years — from 78.9 years in 2014, to 78.6 in 2017. This is despite the US spending the most on health care per capita than any other country in the world.
Of all age groups, adults 25 to 64 years old saw the largest increase in mortality rates — 6% — according to the study, published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA.
The Ohio Valley, which includes West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, as well as the northern New England area, including New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, saw the largest relative increases in deaths, the study found.
For obesity, midlife mortality rates increased 114%. Deaths due to hypertension for this age group increased by 78.9%. Mortality rates linked to alcohol-related problems, such as chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, increased 40.6% overall during that same time period.
For people between the ages of 25 and 34, the rate of alcohol-related disease deaths increased by 157.6% from 1999 to 2017. Suicide rates increased by 38.3% for people ages 25 to 64, and by 55.9% for people ages 55 to 64.
“It is a whole constellation of conditions they have shown impacts life expectancy. It is not just medical conditions, but also the social drivers that appear to be at play, like income inequality and mental distress,” Koh said. He believes there is a greater awareness of these issues, that your health is much more than what happens in your doctor’s office.
“Health starts with where you live, labor, learn, play and pray,” Koh said. “What that means is that we need to embed a culture of health through all sectors of society.”
Source : CNN