US Life Expectancy Still Declines, Says Report

A new study finds that life expectancy at birth, or the average length of time that you are expected to live, continues to drop for Americans.

Obesity, drug overdoses, alcohol-related illnesses, and suicide are mostly to blame for the decline. The study's authors said these predicaments have been growing since the 1980s.

The US had been making steady growth in the trend. Life expectancy increased by nearly a decade over the last 50 years - from 69.9 years in 1959 to 78.9 years in 2016.

The pace of this increase slowed over time, while other high-income countries remained to show steady growth in life expectancy.

US life expectancy plateaued in 2010 but began reversing in 2014, declining for three consecutive years - from 78.9 years in 2014 to 78.6 in 2017. That is despite the US paying most on health care per capita than any other country in the world.

Adults aging 25 to 64 years old had a six percent increase in mortality rates - which the researchers considered the largest rise in the movements - according to the study published in the medical journal JAMA.

The study said the most significant relative increase in deaths are in the areas of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, northern New England, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.

The researchers examined at data from the US Mortality Database and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's WONDER database.

While other studies to date have detected this negative trend, this certain study had an extra mile. The paper remarked that problems - like suicide and drug overdoses - are reducing the American expectancy that has been building since the 1990s. The study added that fatal drug overdoses for people in midlife increased 386.5 percent between 1999 and 2017.

Midlife mortality rates for obesity increased by 114 percent. Deaths due to hypertension for this age group grew by 78.9 percent. Fatality rates linked to alcohol-related problems grew by a total of 40.6 percent during that same period.

The rate of alcohol-related disease deaths increased by 157.6 percent for people between the ages of 25 and 34 during the years of 1999 to 2017. Suicide rates increased by 38.3 percent for people ages 25 to 64, and by 55.9 percent for people ages 55 to 64.

Drops in life expectancy are not likely to change anytime soon - experts

The negative trends in life expectancy - while there are public health initiatives to address these issues - are not likely to reduce any time soon due to underlying drivers. 

According to the CDC, about 80 percent of adults don't meet physical activity guidelines, studies show, and nearly 71 percent of American grown-ups are overweight or obese.

Dr. Howard Koh, a public health professor Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health who wrote an editorial to accompany the study, said the experts cannot always assume an increase in the yearly life expectancy. He added that the nation places the future at risk where the discovery might be "a disturbing new normal."

"It is a whole constellation of [circumstances] they have shown impacts life expectancy. It is not just medical conditions, but also the social drivers that appear to be [in action] - such as income inequality and mental distress," Koh said.

The professor considers that there is greater recognition of these issues, that health is much more than what happens in the doctor's office.