21–30 of 278 posts
Can someone explain the link of the lowered life expectancy to flu and pneumonia? I thought that these were deceases that were only fatal for people with compromised immunity.
(On edit: below comment is retracted. At least for 2015 to 2016, the decline is not attributable to Simpson's paradox. See Table 4 in the CDC report linked below.) This is either incompetence or maliciousness on behalf of the CDC, WSJ, or both. Life expectancy in the US is falling, but it's only falling due to Simpson's Paradox [1]. The CDC's own data [2] shows life expectancy increasing for all genders and races exc…
since 1990. • In 2016 compared with 2015, life expectancy decreased for non-Hispanic white males (0.2 year), non-Hispanic black males (0.4), non-Hispanic black females (0.2), Hispanic males (0.2), and Hispanic females (0.1). Life expectancy for non-Hispanic white females remained unchanged
So, no, it's not just Simpson's paradox.
I think we've reached the point of diminishing marginal returns to health care spending. That means when we spend more money on healthcare as a percent of GDP, life expectancy starts to fall. We are already at 16% of GDP spent on healthcare. That's double the amount that any other country spends on healthcare. We also have worse life expectancy vs. countries that spend much less as a percent of GDP than we do. One of…
I think we've reached the point of diminishing marginal returns to health care spending. That means when we spend more money on healthcare as a percent of GDP, life expectancy starts to fall. We are already at 16% of GDP spent on healthcare. That's double the amount that any other country spends on healthcare. We also have worse life expectancy vs. countries that spend much less as a percent of GDP than we do. One of…
I think a better conclusion would be that life expectancy can be hardly increased with further spending in the current healthcare system.
Can someone explain the link of the lowered life expectancy to flu and pneumonia? I thought that these were deceases that were only fatal for people with compromised immunity.
Wow, maybe (not being sarcastic) eating a monocultured food diet and living as sedate humans in sterile environments has a bigger effect on our immune systems than we'd like. This must have been measured? Compare immunity in farmers vs office workers or some such?
(On edit: below comment is retracted. At least for 2015 to 2016, the decline is not attributable to Simpson's paradox. See Table 4 in the CDC report linked below.) This is either incompetence or maliciousness on behalf of the CDC, WSJ, or both. Life expectancy in the US is falling, but it's only falling due to Simpson's Paradox [1]. The CDC's own data [2] shows life expectancy increasing for all genders and races exc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, maybe (not being sarcastic) eating a monocultured food diet and living as sedate humans in sterile environments has a bigger effect on our immune systems than we'd like. This must have been measured? Compare immunity in farmers vs office workers or some such?
I think you underestimate the amount of bad health environments there are in cities (anecdotal evidence only). I would not call most cities or working environments anywhere close to sterile.
Honestly, somebody should make a Kony2012 style video about it. It was a sham but I can still remember how viral that thing went, because it hit all the buttons of human psychology.
It’s remarkable how much of the article narrates a tale of opioids and suicide, whereas the obvious elephant in the room seems the be the poor, or lack thereof of a public health care system.
>the drug and suicide deaths account for many years of life lost because they occur mostly in young to middle-aged adults.
Hence their large effect on life expectancy.
Of course healthcare effects life expectancy but the net effect on overall life expectancy has been small because half-assed legislation has ensured that recent gains for the poor and sick have come at the expense of the middle class and healthy.