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Life expectancy in the US declined for the third year in a row, as suicide and overdose deaths continue to rise, according to a new report released Thursday by the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. . The average life expectancy of the United States has decreased slightly from 78.7 in 2016 to 78.6 in 2017. This may seem insignificant in itself, but as part of the three-year trend, we we find at the heart of the longest decline in life expectancy in the United States since the First World War.
Deaths from heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the country, continued to decline steadily, but this decline was surpbaded by increases in the number of suicides and accidental injuries, including drug overdoses.
The number of drug overdose deaths reached a new record of 70,237 in 2017, an increase of 9.6% over 2016. The increase in overdose deaths is attributable to synthetic opioids, such as than fentanyl. Deaths from these drugs increased by 45% between 2016 and 2017.
The bright side is that, even though the number of overdose deaths continues to increase, the rate of increase is slowing, compared to the 21% increase seen between 2015 and 2016. This could mean that harm-reduction initiatives, such as the awareness and availability of naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose, are starting to take effect. The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Surgeon General stress that access to naloxone is an essential way to prevent overdose deaths, and provide information on where to obtain the drug and receive training how to administer it to a person in distress.
The American surgeon general Jerome Adams raises a dose of naloxone nasal spray, an opioid anti-overdose drug. Photo: Holly Ramer / AP / Shutterstock
Eliza J. Wheeler, mbad reduction strategist at Harm Reduction Coalition, agreed in an email to Rolling stone that the best way to prevent overdose deaths is to "focus on interventions that give people who use drugs the tools to reverse overdoses," including naloxone, opioid-agonist therapy, testing, and liaison with viral hepatitis and HIV care; accessible, voluntary, evidence-based, non-coercive residential, housing and addiction treatment programs. "
"We are also convinced that it is necessary to fight against the structural factors responsible for increasing the number of drug overdose deaths and improving the quality of life of drug addicts," he said. she said, "including policies related to the war on drugs and racialized drugs that affect poverty and contribute to mbad incarceration".
While organizations such as HRC are fighting the growing number of overdose deaths, the suicide death rate has increased by 3.7% between 2016 and 2017. Although most suicides are men, rates are rising faster for women. The number of suicide deaths among women increased by 53% between 1999 and 2017, compared to 26% among men. The difference between suicides is even greater than the male-female division in suicides: the rates are almost twice as high.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a pressure group for gun control, argues that possession of a firearm is an important factor in the problem of suicide in America, with about half of suicides in the United States being suicides by firearm. "Access to firearms, that is, possession of firearms by an individual or household, increases the risk of suicide three times," they noted. in a recent report. "Researchers agree that firearms ownership rates by households are closely related to firearms and suicide rates, even taking into account others." factors badociated with suicide, such as poverty, unemployment, severe mental illness and addictions. This is why states with a high rate of firearms possession by households also have high rates of firearms and suicides in general. "
Of course, the increase in suicide rates is also related to insufficient or inaccessible mental health care problems and other general well-being factors in this country.
Average life expectancy has long been used as an overall measure of a country's health. Life expectancy has increased steadily in most countries of the world over the last century, thanks to technological advances and advances in medicine.
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