Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LIFE EXPECTANCY IN in the United States dropped last year for the first time since the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis more than 20 years ago, as deaths rose from nearly every major cause, federal data showed today.
The total US population’s life expectancy in 2015 was 78.8 years, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2014, said the report by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Deaths from eight of the top 10 causes mounted, including spikes in accidental deaths among children and deaths from Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly.
The report did not delve into the reasons for the across-the-board decline in life expectancy from birth, but experts pointed to economic struggles, drug addiction and the increasing burden of dementia on an aging population as potential factors.
Across the nation, 86,212 more people died in 2015 than a year earlier.
“This is unusual,” said lead author Jiaquan Xu, an epidemiologist at the NCHS, which is part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“2015 is kind of different from every year,” Xu told AFP, adding that it:
looks like much more death than we have seen in the last few years.
The last time life expectancies at birth dropped for the total US population was in 1993, a year when the deaths from AIDS reached a peak in the United States, compounded by a bad flu year that resulted in more flu and pneumonia deaths, he said.
Homicide and accidental death rates also went up that year.
For 2015, the data also showed a 1.2% increase in the death rate for the total population, and this “rose significantly for the first time since 1999,” noted the report.
Outlier
For US men, life expectancy dropped 0.2 years from 76.5 years in 2014 to 76.3 years in 2015.
For US women, life expectancy decreased 0.1 year to 81.2 years in 2015.
The overall downward trend in America stands in sharp contrast to the situation worldwide, where global life expectancy has increased five years from 2000 to 2015, according to the World Health Organisation.
Women in Japan currently have the longest average lifespan at 86.8 years, while men in Switzerland can anticipate 81.3 years.
Sierra Leone has the lowest life expectancy, with women at 50.8 years and men at 49.3.
In the United States, life expectancy has stagnated nationwide in recent years.
Federal data from 2014 showed a slight downturn in life expectancy for white people, which experts said could be due to rising drug abuse – particularly the prescription painkiller epidemic – and poverty.
But this year, there was no single cause.
Alzheimer’s and accidents
Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease rose 15.7% in a single year.
“Such a dramatic rise is a profound reminder of how devastating this condition has become,” said Keri Peterson, a doctor at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York who was not involved in the report.
Among adults, there was a 6.7% increase in deaths from “unintentional injuries.”
Another alarming finding was the rise in infant deaths, where data showed an 11.3% increase in the rate of death for babies under age one due to unintentional injuries.
“Most of them died from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed,” said Xu, noting that these injuries are classified separately from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Infants
SIDS rose to the third top cause of infant mortality, up from fourth place in 2014.
“We know that unintentional injuries in children are complicated,” said Michael Grosso, medical director at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital in New York, noting that they can include car crashes, falls, suffocation, fires and smoke-related injuries.
“Accidental injury really relates to social stressors,” such as financial pressures and addiction, he told AFP.
“The dramatic upswing in the use of opiates and narcotic use across our country is potentially a big factor in driving a phenomenon like accidental injury.”
Across the US adult population, increases were seen in deaths from heart disease (0.9%), chronic lower respiratory diseases (2.7%), stroke (3.0%), diabetes (1.9%), kidney disease (1.5%), and suicide (2.3%).
The rate of cancer deaths dropped 1.7%, and influenza and pneumonia deaths were unchanged.
“The only good news we see in 2015 was that the cancer death rate continued to decrease,” said Xu.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Last time I saw that happen was here with a BOI Insurance sponsored story. It came up late at night and in minutes all the comments lashed out at the bank. In an hour the article went away quitely in the night.
Bankers really do not know how much they are hated.
Sure what did they expect being financial terrorists and all
Financial terrorists, good one!
Freedom fighters
JP Morgan have destroyed a lot of countries in the world, greedy sons of b****es that will stop at nothing for more wealth. They are one of the 14 banks in the us that own the FEDThey own companies all over the world. There the biggest shareholders in BP, and a number of key mining and oil companies. They don’t just do banking. They are corrupt and trade inside illegially. They cause more misery in the world than some of the worst governments.
Well said ned, its been pushed by some countries and companies that the dollar should end as a world reserve currency. This would put a major obstacle in the way of JPM and the corrupt federal reserve. The dollar has been washed away to the extent its not even worth paper and the only way to keep it as a world reserve is corrupt low tactics.
They also funded the Nazis. Their major shareholders are the puppet masters.
if you’ve seen the movie “wall street” made in 1987. At the very start the first lines of the movie are “The biggest mistake we ever made was letting Nixon get off the gold standard”. This refers to 1972 when the dollar was backed by gold,
To explain after WW2, the dollar was the world currency and if you had a dollar bill the US Federal Reserve would of given you gold instead of your dollar bill if you wanted to cash it in. The Nixon shock was when france wanted to cash in the dollars they had for gold and the US FED didn’t have enough gold to give them.
The Nixon shock was when he convinced the middle east countries to trade oil for dollars only. saving the dollar and creating the petrodollar. Since then the only value dollars have are the paper there printed. the dollar is going to crashing down. like MrKnow said its only worth paper…
Russia have introduced a bill to ban dollars from use in the country. Many more countries are following suit. The dollar is dying………… But you won’t find that news on the Journal or any other irish or UK media sources.
@Dairmuid very well said, a lot of people don’t understand how the petrodollar works, when we hear about the fall of saddam and gadaffi we hear the bull that the western media feed us! But their is a way bigger story to why these leaders and their countries fell and thats why the petrodollar needs to end.
Russia and china are being slammed because of their calls for the US dollar to end as a world reserve and their (especially russia) plans to ban dollars and the depending if it to trade. They know the dollar will eventually end its domance and if economy’s around the world don’t prepare they will crash with the dollars eventual end.
China is thought to have the biggest stock of gold, they also own the biggest percentage of American dept. By all right the yen should be a world currency because they can backup their dept, don’t see why the world should suffer economic disaster because the US wants the dollar as a world reserve.
No doubt we will see more sabotage and sanctions put on countries that threaten the dollars role in the world, I suspect Russia, china and the US will enter a eco war to change things. I also think the free trade with Europe is too little too late and will impact Europe in a negative way when the dollar falls from glory.
People have different theories on this and rightfully so, thats just mine.
I love them and have shares :) they make me money and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.
JP Morgan, only outdone for cheating, manipulating and stealing, by Goldman Sachs.
A book well worth reading : Money and power : How Goldman Sachs came to rule the world.
“From the outside, Goldman Sachs is a perfect company. The Goldman PR machine loudly declares it to be smarter, more ethical, and more profitable than all of its competitors. Behind closed doors, however, ! etc, etc”
Author , William Cohen worked on Wall Street for 17 years.
JPM
S C U M of the earth
Just check out the total in fines over just the last few years, for FRAUD and market manipulation.
What did they expect ??
A group hug ?
#fail
A rake?
What’s the conversion rate for the rake? How many rakes to the pile?
Shouldnt bother interacting with the nobody keyboard warriors. Don’t interact with those beneath you they are simply inferior and worthless
Well done Kenneth posted like a real “keyboard warrior”
have your say