Signs of declining health for American men abound in the National Center for Health Statistics latest annual report.No white male privilege according to the data.
Life expectancy at birth for males declined to 76.1 years in 2017 from 76.5 in 2014, according to the data. At age 65, men are projected to live another 18.1 years compared with 20.6 years for women.
These and other takeaways from the annual report, which tracks the health of the U.S. population across different metrics, have implications for productivity, wages, and the broader economy.
Here are some other highlights from the report released on Oct. 30.
Life Expectancy
Life expectancy has been falling across demographics in America. The estimates for whites, blacks and Hispanics fell to 78.5, 74.9 and 81.8 respectively by 2017, after having peaked in 2012 or 2014 for those groups.
The decline in life expectancy is occurring in part due to deaths from despair. From 2007 to 2017, the mortality rate from drug overdoses increased 82%, to 21.7 deaths from 11.9 per 100,000. Over the same 10-year period, suicide rates increased 24%, to 14.0 deaths from 11.3 per 100,000 resident population.
Males had twice the female drug overdose death rate in 2017 and rates for men have virtually doubled since 2007. The recent increases were especially pronounced among men aged 25–34 and 35–44, the report shows.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Life expectancy at birth for males declined to 76.1 years in 2017 from 76.5 in 2014, according to the data.
Bloomberg reports:
