Americans Should Be Living Longer [CHARTS]

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-should-be-living-longer-charts-2013-11

This chart, featured in the report, shows how closely life expectancy correlates with GDP per capita. As you can see, however, the U.S. (along with Russia and Norway) falls behind the curve. The life expectancy in the States is 78.7, but probably should be closer to 82 or 83 judging from this chart.



Now, let's take a look at another chart which paints an even bleaker picture. In this chart, which maps life expectancy against health spending per capita, the U.S. falls even further behind the curve.



The U.S. is clearly a huge outlier in the second chart. If it followed the curve, Americans life expectancy would be close to 85 years.

Moreover, as the OECD report itself notes, since 1970 the gains in U.S. life expectancy have been more modest than its peers — the country has gone from one year above average to one year below. The report goes on to suggest that the "highly fragmented" nature of the U.S. health care system probably plays a role in this stagnation, alongside socio-economic problems and patterns of health-related behavior (drug abuse, high calorie diets).



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-should-be-living-longer-charts-2013-11#ixzz2lTAf9NZQ

[Joel thakkar]

1. But..but..but

if all Americans started living more.they will consume social security/medicare more and billionaires would make few MILLIONS less instead. This is unacceptable.

[mainer]

2. What's with Norway?

Seems to me they have everything going for them, but they dip off the curve. Is it because that end of the curve is simply the maximum human life expectancy achievable, and they can't go much higher?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Could be lifestyle issues

Diet (probably more animal fat, being far north) or smoking, perhaps. They're only a year or so below the highest; that could be enough to make a relatively small difference.

[rucky]

4. I'd like to see it correlated to the GINI

GDP per capita doesn't count for distribution of wealth, which may be a better measure

[Laelth]

5. +1. n/t

-Laelth

[Trillo]

6. A lot of interesting information, perhaps related

in the search "stress lifespan" without the quotes.

[PDF]
The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan
www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/pdf/childhood_stress.pdf - Cached - Similar
Stress on Health Across the Lifespan. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2008.