Our life expectancy is an average measure of how long we can expect to live. It depends on a number of factors, including our gender and lifestyle. Life expectancy has generally been on an upward trend in developed societies with good healthcare. However, U.S. life expectancy continues a downward trend during the pandemic, suggesting the crisis may be deeper than we think.
Key Statistics as U.S. Life Expectancy Falls
NPR Health News says U.S. life expectancy continues to fall for the second year in the row. In 2019, citizens could anticipate living to an average almost 80. However, by the end of 2020 this had fallen to 77 years. And now, statistics just released say it fell further to 76.1 years during 2021.
‘The results of this study are very disturbing.’ So says Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health equity at Virginia Commonwealth University. ‘This shows that U.S. life expectancy in 2021 was even lower than in 2020,’ he admits.
Yet somewhat surprisingly other high-income countries have rebounded. Therefore it follows some other factor must be in play here. One contributor could be a pattern among American Indian and Alaskan Native people. Life expectancy in this group fell from 67.1 in 2020 to 65.2 in 2021, according to a National Center for Health Statistics Report.
But Wealthier Americans Felt the Impact Too
White American life expectancy fell sharper than Black and Hispanic Americans during 2021. This somewhat surprising result reversed the opposite trend in 2020. And as a result, White American life expectancy dropped to 76.4 years during 2021.
Dr. Steven Woolf comments that this could reflect attitudes in some parts of the country to vaccines and pandemic control measures. That’s because U.S. states with more relaxed control measures recorded higher levels of excess deaths.
‘The COVID-19 pandemic has in effect wiped out the health gains that the U.S. has made in the 20th century.’ So says John Haaga, a member of Maryland’s Commission on Aging. ‘To have this second year of crash basically wiping out the meager gains made during the century, is really pretty shocking.’
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