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US Lags Behind 41 Nations In Life Span
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| US Lags Behind 41 Nations In Life Span
- Click HERE to go to the original thread with graphics
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| Ass Boil |
U.S. lags behind 41 nations in life span
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer | August 11, 2007
WASHINGTON --Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
"Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the Census Bureau. It was followed by Japan, Maucau, San Marino and Singapore.
The shortest life expectancies were clustered in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that has been hit hard by an epidemic of HIV and AIDS, as well as famine and civil strife. Swaziland has the shortest, at 34.1 years, followed by Zambia, Angola, Liberia and Zimbabwe.
Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.
But "it's not as simple as saying we don't have national health insurance," said Sam Harper, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal. "It's not that easy."
Among the other factors:
-- Adults in the United States have one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Nearly a third of U.S. adults 20 years and older are obese, while about two-thirds are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
"The U.S. has the resources that allow people to get fat and lazy," said Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta. "We have the luxury of choosing a bad lifestyle as opposed to having one imposed on us by hard times."
-- Racial disparities. Black Americans have an average life expectancy of 73.3 years, five years shorter than white Americans.
Black American males have a life expectancy of 69.8 years, slightly longer than the averages for Iran and Syria and slightly shorter than in Nicaragua and Morocco.
-- A relatively high percentage of babies born in the U.S. die before their first birthday, compared with other industrialized nations.
Forty countries, including Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004. The U.S. rate was 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births. It was 13.7 for Black Americans, the same as Saudi Arabia.
"It really reflects the social conditions in which African American women grow up and have children," said Dr. Marie C. McCormick, professor of maternal and child health at the Harvard School of Public Health. "We haven't done anything to eliminate those disparities."
Another reason for the U.S. drop in the ranking is that the Census Bureau now tracks life expectancy for a lot more countries -- 222 in 2004 -- than it did in the 1980s. However, that does not explain why so many countries entered the rankings with longer life expectancies than the United States.
Murray, from the University of Washington, said improved access to health insurance could increase life expectancy. But, he predicted, the U.S. won't move up in the world rankings as long as the health care debate is limited to insurance.
Policymakers also should focus on ways to reduce cancer, heart disease and lung disease, said Murray. He advocates stepped-up efforts to reduce tobacco use, control blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.
"Even if we focused only on those four things, we would go along way toward improving health care in the United States," Murray said. "The starting point is the recognition that the U.S. does not have the best health care system. There are still an awful lot of people who think it does."
http://rawstory.com/showoutarticle....ter%3Fmode%3DPF
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| Mr. PC |
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: |
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| Rike |
| we need the government to tell us how and what to eat! |
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| Ass Boil |
Quote: Originally posted by Mr. PC
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: |
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| Crazytree |
Quote: Originally posted by Rike
we need the government to tell us how and what to eat! |
to a certain extent, yes.
diabetes and obesity are out of control and killing millions of Americans... and wrecking havoc on our health care system... and by extension our taxes... and by extension our personal net worth. |
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| CApenbrink |
Who cares
I don't want life expectancy to get too high
I propose a new government program to 'retire' permanently people when they turn 80...life is meaningless after that age...and it will save a ton of money for the non decrepit elderly |
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| Ass Boil |
Quote: Originally posted by CApenbrink
Who cares
I don't want life expectancy to get too high
I propose a new government program to 'retire' permanently people when they turn 80...life is meaningless after that age...and it will save a ton of money for the non decrepit elderly |
:grim: |
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| ihateralphiec |
| Seriously, if you've ever seen the inside of a nursing home, you don't want to live to whatever that age happens to be. I'm thinking once my family or doctor says I have to go to a nursing home I would sky dive and just not pull the cord. |
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| Mr. Hole |
Quote: Originally posted by ihateralphiec
Seriously, if you've ever seen the inside of a nursing home, you don't want to live to whatever that age happens to be. I'm thinking once my family or doctor says I have to go to a nursing home I would sky dive and just not pull the cord. |
With a lot of old people that's true, but I've seen active seniors that are in relativey good health and able minded, I think preventative medicine and people being taught how to maintain a healthy lifestyle could help to make more older Americans the same way. |
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| Ass Boil |
| That's true. My grandmother is 80, but you wouldn't know that from the way she is running around. Her eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, but otherwise she is very active. |
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| thoroldjames |
Quote: Originally posted by Rike
we need the government to tell us how and what to eat! |
somebody sure as fuck does, in case you haven't noticed most people are lard asses |
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| V00 D00 |
| A big cause of obesity is the food stamp program. Food stamps need to be coded so people can't sell them for cash, they need to only be able to be used to buy meat, fish, poultry, bread, juice and milk. The staples, NO candy, pop and junk shit food. |
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| Crazytree |
Quote: Originally posted by Ass Boil
That's true. My grandmother is 80, but you wouldn't know that from the way she is running around. Her eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, but otherwise she is very active. |
thank God the old people in my family are well into their 80's and still as lucid as they were when they were 40. |
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| Ass Boil |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
thank God the old people in my family are well into their 80's and still as lucid as they were when they were 40. |
I try not to put too much stock in her longevity and what it might mean for me. I don't know about you CT, but I'm sure my Grandmother didn't damage her joints playing Rugby for 10 years in addition to years of football and wrestling, and 4 years of crashes as a bike messenger.... and that doesn't even get into the drinking and other ways I probably damaged my body.
It's hard to imagine that I will make it as long as her, but I don't care. I have had a blast so far, I am still having a blast, and if it ended tomorrow I wouldn't change a thing. |
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| atomizer |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
to a certain extent, yes.
diabetes and obesity are out of control and killing millions of Americans... and wrecking havoc on our health care system... and by extension our taxes... and by extension our personal net worth. |
True. Sorry to inform Lou Dobbs, but so much more of my tax money goes to maintaining the slow death of these fat fucking diabetic blobs in their SUVs and their hideous feeding lifestyles than it does to any roof-tarring spic and his eighteen children clogging up the emergency room. That doesn't compute for the bigots, though, does it? |
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| Richard Wagner |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
to a certain extent, yes.
diabetes and obesity are out of control and killing millions of Americans... and wrecking havoc on our health care system... and by extension our taxes... and by extension our personal net worth. |
There should be a separate health care system for fat people. Theirs is the pleasure of stuffing their faces with Big Macs and KFC all day and night, so theirs also should be the pain of payment, in disease and the cost of treatment. It is sickening that well behaved people should have to subsidize the savagery of others. |
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| Crazytree |
Quote: Originally posted by Richard Wagner
There should be a separate health care system for fat people. Theirs is the pleasure of stuffing their faces with Big Macs and KFC all day and night, so theirs also should be the pain of payment, in disease and the cost of treatment. It is sickening that well behaved people should have to subsidize the savagery of others. |
Separate but unequal? |
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| Richard Wagner |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
Separate but unequal? |
Obviously yes. Fat people require treatment different from and in excess of the treatment required by those who do not abuse themselves. |
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| Crazytree |
Quote: Originally posted by Richard Wagner
Obviously yes. Fat people require treatment different from and in excess of the treatment required by those who do not abuse themselves. |
Great idea... hypothetically speaking. Impossible in practice.
Practically impossible at best, a Due Process violation at worst. |
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| Richard Wagner |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
Great idea... hypothetically speaking. Impossible in practice.
Practically impossible at best, a Due Process violation at worst. |
The better idea is just to eliminate the government practice of forcing individuals to pay for the services of other individuals. Individuals should just pay for their own services. Then fat people would have a greater incentive to not be fat. |
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| atomizer |
What about tobacco and the southern man who depends upon it? Is Juan and Maria and their dies y tres muchachos y muchachas who apparently clog up the ER draining my paycheck more than the upkeep of these sad scumbags who need my cash for their emphysema (sp?) aqualungs? I don't think so.
Thanks, tobacco state lobbyists. |
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| Crazytree |
Quote: Originally posted by Richard Wagner
The better idea is just to eliminate the government practice of forcing individuals to pay for the services of other individuals. Individuals should just pay for their own services. Then fat people would have a greater incentive to not be fat. |
again... you invoke the Afghanistan model... which hasn't worked out so well...
sorry but if you cut off healthcare to the poor... the blaeks are going to hunt down your white ass like an animal. |
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| Ass Boil |
Nah, that would be cancelled out by the Republicans whose heads exploded last November.
It's a wash. |
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| Richard Wagner |
Quote: Originally posted by Crazytree
again... you invoke the Afghanistan model... which hasn't worked out so well...
sorry but if you cut off healthcare to the poor... the blaeks are going to hunt down your white ass like an animal. |
I am not for cutting off health care to the poor. |
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| DUDE-HERE |
Quote: Originally posted by Ass Boil
That's true. My grandmother is 80, but you wouldn't know that from the way she is running around. Her eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, but otherwise she is very active. |
is she moving to guam ? |
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