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Rising rates of suicide and drug overdoses have increased the number of deaths in the United States and reduced the life expectancy of Americans by 2017.
Data released Thursday by the CDC show that 2.8 million deaths were recorded last year, nearly 70,000 more than the year before.
This is the largest number of deaths in a year since the start of the count by the government more than a century ago.
According to the CDC, in 2017, life expectancy at birth was 78.6 years – the previous year she was 78.7 years old. They are three and a half years younger than Canada on the other side of the border.
In women, the 81.1 year expectancy remained stable from 2016 to 2017, but for men it went from 76.2 to 76.1.
For decades, life expectancy in the United States has been increasing. Now the trend is the opposite: it dropped in 2015, remained stable in 2016 and fell again last year.
This is the longest period of decline in life expectancy since the late 1910s, when World War I and the worst influenza pandemic in modern history killed about a million people. # 39; Americans. In 1918, life expectancy was 39 years old.
The figures partly reflect the increase and aging of the population. But the deaths concern the youngest, especially the middle-aged, who have had the greatest impact on the calculation of life expectancy, according to experts.
"These disturbing statistics warn us that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to preventable conditions," CDC director Robert Redfield said in a statement.
Of the top ten leading causes of death in the country, only the cancer death rate has decreased in 2017. Seven more have increased: suicides, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, influenza and pneumonia, chronic respiratory diseases and unintentional injuries.
The number of suicides last year – more than 47,000, or 14 per 100,000 – was the highest of the last 50 years. In 2016, there were less than 45,000.
More than a third of the deaths in the category of "unintentional injuries" were due to an accidental drug overdose.
During the worst epidemic of this problem in the history of the United States, which has worsened over the past four years, the number of overdose deaths has continued to increase, exceeding 70,000 to 10% that of the previous year, rising from 21% in 2015 to 2016
Growth was higher among opioid overdose deaths, especially synthetic products such as fentanyl, tens of times more potent than heroin – a dose error can be fatal. About 28,000 people died, 45% more than in 2016.
However, the same parameter doubled from 2015 to 2016, showing that growth is already happening at a slower pace. Preliminary data for 2018 even suggests that the crisis peaked earlier in the year, but the CDC avoids disseminating this information.
For addiction specialist Harshal Kirane, it is encouraging to see that the trajectory is changing. "But 70,000 deaths are still difficult to digest," he says.
The overdose epidemic does not affect the entire country. Central states, from Texas to South Dakota, are relatively safe.
The crisis is acute in the northeastern United States, where drug-related deaths account for more than a quarter of organ donations, which is comparable to road accidents.
It is also strong in the former industrial belt states (Ohio and Pennsylvania) and particularly West Virginia where there are 58 deaths per 100,000 population – the national average is 22.
Deaths from heart disease, the number that kills the most in the United States, have stopped declining and have remained stable.
In previous years, the decrease in this cause was sufficient to offset the increase in other types of deaths, but nothing more.
In another category, deaths due to influenza and pneumonia, this number has increased by 6% year-on-year. The influenza season from 2017 to 2018 was one of the worst of more than a decade, and some of the deaths recorded in early fall / winter were recorded at this level.
CDC officials have not speculated on what is behind the decline in life expectancy, but experts like William Dietz, who works with preventive medicine at George Washington University, say there is little hope today for reasons such as financial difficulties income inequality rate.
"I really believe that people are losing hope and that this leads to an increase in drug use and potentially suicide," he said.
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