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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

U.S. Mortality Figures

A New Divide in American Death

From 1990 to 1995, death rates of blacks, Hispanics and whites ages 40 to 44 changed at a similar pace. Since 1995, however, the death rates of blacks and Hispanics have decreased more than the rates of whites.

Joel Achenbach, Dan Keating, Kennedy Elliott, Weiyi Cai | April 10, 2016



An urban-rural mortality gap emerges among whites as risky behaviors work to defy modern trends.
White women have been dying prematurely at higher rates since the turn of this century, passing away in their 30s, 40s and 50s in a slow-motion crisis driven by decaying health in small-town America, according to an analysis of national health and mortality statistics by The Washington Post.
Among African Americans, Hispanics and even the oldest white Americans, death rates have continued to fall. But for white women in what should be the prime of their lives, death rates have spiked upward. In one of the hardest-hit groups — rural white women in their late 40s — the death rate has risen by 30 percent.

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Source: http://www.emailnewsletterstand.com/e/wonkbook-where-living-poor-means-dying-young

<more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/10/a-new-divide-in-american-death/; related articles and links: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/11/where-living-poor-means-dying-young/ (Where living poor means dying young. Arpil 11, 2016) and http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078 (Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Anne Case and Agnus Deaton. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112 no. 49, 15078–15083, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1518393112. [Abstract: This paper documents a marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic men and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013. This change reversed decades of progress in mortality and was unique to the United States; no other rich country saw a similar turnaround. The midlife mortality reversal was confined to white non-Hispanics; black non-Hispanics and Hispanics at midlife, and those aged 65 and above in every racial and ethnic group, continued to see mortality rates fall. This increase for whites was largely accounted for by increasing death rates from drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis. Although all education groups saw increases in mortality from suicide and poisonings, and an overall increase in external cause mortality, those with less education saw the most marked increases. Rising midlife mortality rates of white non-Hispanics were paralleled by increases in midlife morbidity. Self-reported declines in health, mental health, and ability to conduct activities of daily living, and increases in chronic pain and inability to work, as well as clinically measured deteriorations in liver function, all point to growing distress in this population. We comment on potential economic causes and consequences of this deterioration.])>

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