2024-08-13 23:05:42
Australia has been the UK country with the highest life expectancy for the past three decades, and that’s despite being the place where some of the world’s most dangerous animals live. Considering other British high-income countries,The Irish were the ones who recorded the biggest improvements in their longevity, initially Americans are in last place from the beginning of the nineties of the last century. They are the results of research from the University of Pennsylvania State (Penn State) funded by the National Institute on Aging of the US National Institutes of Health, which was published in the journal ‘BMJ Open’.
Researchers compared life expectancy at United States, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand using data from the Human Mortality Database and the World Health Organization Mortality Database between 1990 and 2019. They analyzed the data by sex, age, and 18 individual and cause-of-death categories, including diseases, drug- and alcohol-related deaths, firearms, and motor vehicle accidents. They also examine life expectancy within each country to identify regional inequalities by region.
“One lesson we Americans can learn about life expectancy by looking at comparable countries is where the frontier of optimal performance is. Yes, we did it wrong, but this study shows what we can expect. “We know that these gains in life expectancy are really possible because other major countries have already done it,” said Jessica Ho, associate professor of economics and sociology at Penn State and lead author of the study. the thing.
The researchers found that Australians had the highest life expectancy at birth during the study period: Women live almost 4 years longer and men 5 years longer than their American counterparts. The Irish showed the biggest increases in life expectancy, with men increasing by about 8 years and women by more than 6.5 years. Americans have the shortest life expectancy at birthThey lived an average of almost 81.5 years and they lived an average of almost 76.5 years in 2019.
The United States also exhibits some of the greatest regional inequalities in this regard compared to other countries. Women and men of California and Hawaii have some of the highest life expectancies at birthwith an average of 83 to 83.9 years for women and 77.5 to 78.4 years for men; compared to the states of the American Southeast, which recorded some of the lowest life expectancy where all the subnational regions were studied, with an average of 72.6 to 79.9 years for women and 69.3 to 74.4 years for men men, according to the researchers.
« One of the main factors that explains why American longevity is so much shorter “What other high-income countries have is that our young people are dying at higher rates from the most preventable causes of death, such as drug overdose, car accidents and homicide,” said Ho, who is also a partner in the Social Science Research Institute. from Penn State.
In middle life (ages 45 to 64) some of these factors persist, such as high drug and alcohol-related death rates, Ho explained, adding that they also have higher death rates. from heart disease.
“Some of the latter may be related to a sedentary lifestyle, high rates of obesity, unhealthy diet, stress and a history of smoking. “These unhealthy behavioral patterns are likely to put Americans to disadvantage in terms of health and energy,” he said.
In Ho’s view, Australia offers the United States a model for improving its life expectancy, as both are large in terms of land area and have a comparable history of owning a personal car. The two countries have some cultural similarities, including a large historical use of weapons. However, Australia implemented a number of policies in recent decades, as well gun law reformswhich helps propel them to the top of the climbing ranks.
“What the research shows is that a country like Australia has surpassed the United States and managed to control the deaths of young people. It has low levels of gun deaths and murders, low levels of drug and alcohol use, and the best work on chronic diseases, refers to things related to lifestyle, healthy habits, and healthy activity,” Ho.
In the opinion of the lead author of the article, policies such as investing in public transport infrastructure, adding more roundabouts and having fewer large vehicles on the road can reduce fatal accidents trafficking in the US It also suggests greater support for programs designed to reduce drug dependence and barriers to treatment, as well as overdose prevention can help reduce drug-related deaths. “A strong combination of public health efforts, access to medical care and community interventions to encourage healthy lifestyles and preventive medicine use can reduce mortality from cardiovascular diseases,” he added.
“Australia is a model of how Americans can improve and achieve not only longer life expectancy but also less regional inequality in that life expectancy,” Ho said.
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