Life Expectancy Lags in the U.S.

Jan. 28, 2011— -- Life expectancy in the U.S. lags behind that of many other high-income countries and is currently ranked by the United Nations at number 28, despite spending the most on healthcare, according to a National Academy of Sciences report.

In 2006, the average life expectancy at birth was 75.1 years for American men and 80.2 years for women, rising from 47.9 years and 50.7 years, respectively, in 1900 and 65.4 and 71 in 1950.

In contrast, life expectancy for men in Japan was 79.2 years in 2007 and 86 years for women, up from 57.6 and 60.9 in 1950, respectively, reported Eileen M. Crimmins, PhD, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues.

Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.

Another success story has been France, where life expectancy for men increased from 63.4 years in 1950 to 77.4 years in 2007, and the increase for women was from 69.2 years to 84.4 years.

At the request of the National Institute on Aging, Crimmins' group looked at mortality in people over 50 years of age in more than 20 countries as recorded in the Human Mortality Database, analyzing possible reasons for the differences in life expectancy.

They determined that one strong factor was cigarette smoking, particularly for women.

Fifty years ago Americans smoked far more than residents of other countries -- and the consequences of this still strongly influence mortality today.

"The damage caused by smoking was estimated to account for 78 percent of the gap in life expectancy for women and 41 percent of the gap for men between the U.S. and other high-income countries in 2003," the report stated.

Smoking-related mortality is expected to decline among men in the near future, although likely to remain high among women for another decade or so because of historical patterns of tobacco use, according to the researchers.

Other contributory factors included obesity and lack of exercise, although the authors noted that the evidence base for these is less certain and more difficult to quantify.

In addition, although obesity is epidemic in the U.S. today, management of some of its most hazardous consequences, such as type 2 diabetes, has significantly improved.