The Life Expectancy in America Lags Behind Other Wealthy Nations

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Challenged by smoking habits, rising instances of diabetes and high blood pressure, and drug abuse, the population of the U.S. simply lags behind other similar nations when it comes to infant mortality and the life expectancy its citizens, the U.S. National Library of Medicine reports.

A comprehensive study of global health statistics found that the U.S. does not meet the high expectations set based on the amount of money spent on healthcare. The findings were part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2015, a scientific analysis of more than 300 diseases and injuries in 195 countries and territories.

“Not all U.S. citizens benefit equally from [the country’s] advantages,” said Dr. Mohsen Naghavi, a professor with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “This comes from inequality to access to health care, along with other social economic factors.”

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In 2015, infant mortality in the country came out to six deaths for every 1,000 kids younger than 5; the average for all high-income nations combined was nearly 5 per 1,000. Men and women of all races and ethnicities also had poorer life expectancies compared to the rest of the “developed world.”

The research found that men, in 2015, had an average life expectancy of 76.7 years, with close to 66.8 of those years spent in “good health.” For women, the average was 81.5 years with 69.5 spent in good health. Compared to all other high-income countries, combined the average was 78.1 for men (68.9 in good health) and 83.4 for women (72.2 in good health).

“The numbers show that the United States needs to rethink its approach to health care,” said Dr. Prabhjot Singh, director of Mount Sinai’s Arnhold Institute for Global Health in New York City. “We are investing in the wrong stuff, and we are paying for it with our lives.”

This information is especially daunting for Latinos, which are the fastest-growing population in the country. As of the 2014 U.S. Census, there were 55.3 million Latinos in the United State, comprising 17.3% of the total population. This figure is expected to continually rise and it is projected to reach 119 million (28.6% of the population) by 2060.

The study points to the ongoing rise of diabetes as a major health concern for the U.S. Latinos are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician as non-Hispanic whites. Latinos also have higher rates of end-stage renal disease caused by diabetes and are 40% more likely to die from diabetes than whites.

“Diabetes is a good example of an ongoing health problem the United States is ill-equipped to fight,” Singh said. “People need to eat healthy and get physical exercise to either control their diabetes or avoid it altogether. But to do that, they need to live in communities where healthy food is affordable and opportunities for activity are plentiful.”