U.S. Life Expectancy Declined Nearly a Year in 2021, Deepening Historic Slide

Americans’ life expectancy continued to slide in 2021. According to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics released on Aug. 31, life expectancy dropped by 0.9 years in 2021, leading to a total decrease of about 2.7 years between 2019 and 2021—the largest two-year decline in a century. Once again, COVID-19 was the primary reason Americans died younger, accounting for 50% of the decline. However, other causes of death—including drug overdoses, heart disease, and liver disease—also surged, hinting at the devastating ripple effects the pandemic has had on society. The life expectancy for someone born in 2021 was 76.1 years, down from 77 years in 2020. The decline was greater for men than for women; the life expectancy for males was 73.2 years, down an entire year from 2020, and 79.1 for females, a 0.8 year loss. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The drop in life expectancy wasn’t inevitable, especially after a highly effective COVID-19 vaccine became available, says Andrew Stokes, an assistant professor in the department of global health at Boston University School of Public Health. In fact, many wealthy countries—including much of western Europe—recovered in 2021 after experiencing declines in life expectancy in 2020—while some countries, like Australia, experienced no declines at all. “The U.S. is an outlier,” says Stokes. “In a highly functioning public health and health care ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news