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Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

economist.com

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Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#11

Post by kingmanaz »

refurb wrote: post #3

Life expectancy is a very blunt tool when measuring citizen's well being. A few ways life expectancy can go down: - babies that other would have died and not counted live long enough with modern medicine that they drag the average down - refugees or immigrants in poor health increase, dragging the average down - a change in methodology in how life expectancy is calculated

America's average height has also been declining along with its IQ, and why should this be surprising given that the nation has been prioritizing the importation of peoples anywhere-but-from-the-Occident for over ~50 years?

Here's hoping the Jewish-ethnostate-supporting Emanuel Celler was called out for the hypocrisy of his gentile-disinheriting "Hart-Celler Act" before those yonder pearly gates.

https://www.jta.org/1981/01/19/archive/emanuel-celler-dead-a...

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#12

Post by scarmig »

refurb wrote: post #3

Life expectancy is a very blunt tool when measuring citizen's well being. A few ways life expectancy can go down: - babies that other would have died and not counted live long enough with modern medicine that they drag the average down - refugees or immigrants in poor health increase, dragging the average down - a change in methodology in how life expectancy is calculated

Although it's true that any of those could influence life expectancy, there's no evidence that they play into the decrease here. In fact, the article calls out something very specific as a contributor: the opioid epidemic.

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#13

Post by birken »

A recent episode of "The Weeds" podcast was all about this [1]. I highly recommend listening to it and the podcast in general.

The general thoughts are (especially for those poo-pooing the findings):

- The cause is likely a massive increase in drug overdose deaths, whose average age of death is lower than other common causes (>20% year over year increase, mainly opioid-related) [2]

- The drop in life expectancy is not happening in other countries, just the US (not measurement error)

- It's sort of a big deal, especially if you consider that opioid-related deaths could be going down, or they could be accelerating, we just don't have the data. And if they are accelerating this could be much worse than it already is.

1: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/voxs-the-weeds/e/52748846

2: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/monthly-drug-ove...

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#15

Post by robbiep »

pcurve wrote: post #10

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fuele... Looks like it's attributed to drug epidemic edit: I've posted this WP article because I couldn't actually read the Economist article due to paywall, and I figured other readers may have same issues.

The article specifically mentions this

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#17

Post by dragonwriter »

refurb wrote: post #3

Life expectancy is a very blunt tool when measuring citizen's well being. A few ways life expectancy can go down: - babies that other would have died and not counted live long enough with modern medicine that they drag the average down - refugees or immigrants in poor health increase, dragging the average down - a change in methodology in how life expectancy is calculated

All of those things could theoretically occur, but there hasn't been a methodology change in the US, the age distribution of deaths doesn't support the first explanation, and other demographics of deaths don't support the second. So, they are irrelevant.

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#18

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

lerie82 wrote: post #2

What I took from this was more dug addicts are dying, not "the average American", or did I miss something?

If the mortality amongst drug addicts is moving the needle such that it's reflected in the national average, that means that drug addicts are average Americans.

Also, it's not just addicts who die from an overdose that is contributing to this effect. A hidden/functional addict is still going to die sooner on average than a non addict.

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#19

Post by pasquinelli »

matte_black wrote: post #9

Is there a way to measure “Life expectancy of people most similar to you”? Seems like that would be a more meaningful metric for an individual, rather than lumping them in with every drug addict.

it's not about you, it's about us, america. if you want meaningful metrics for you, talk to your doctor.

Re: Life expectancy in America has declined for two years in a row

#20

Post by dragonwriter »

matte_black wrote: post #9

Is there a way to measure “Life expectancy of people most similar to you”? Seems like that would be a more meaningful metric for an individual, rather than lumping them in with every drug addict.

> Is there a way to measure “Life expectancy of people most similar to you”?

Sure, to some degree of similarity, if you want to spend effort analyzing the multidimensional demographic and other factors in mortality data; there's very little public policy value in that, so the public organizations that compile public health information to support policy aren't likely to package that up for you, though.

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