Middle Aged White Americans In Worse Health Than The Elderly

Fact checked
white americans
Uncertain times for white baby boomers. American film maker and activist Michael Moore at the 66th Venice international film festival.

While people in the industrialized nations of the world and non-white Americans enjoy longer and better lives. The mortality rate among middle aged white Americans is increasing.

This trend, that runs counter to the overall population, is blamed on increased prescribed addictive medications, poor diet, drug and alcohol abuse, debt crisis and suicide.

Ars Technica reports:

From 1998 to 2013, mortality rates of white, non-Hispanic Americans aged 45 to 54 rose by half a percent per year, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The trend is in stark contrast to other groups, which continued to see declines during the time frame. Middle-aged Hispanic and black Americans saw a 1.8 percent and 2.6 percent decrease in mortality rate per year, respectively. Populations of other rich countries also saw around two percent declines in mortality rate per year.

The researchers estimate that if mortality rates of middle-aged white Americans held steady at the 1998 level, 96,000 people would still be alive. If the death rate had continued to decline, as other populations’ did, 488,500 people would still be alive.

Spikes in suicide and drug and alcohol poisoning fueled the rising mortality rate, according to researchers. In 2011, such poisonings caused more deaths in this group than lung cancer, a leading cause of death. And suicide is poised to do the same, the authors report. Though middle-aged white people of all education levels saw increases in deaths from suicide and overdoses, those with the least education suffered the most.

It’s unclear what’s driving more middle-aged white Americans to suicide and overdoses. But researchers speculate that the recent financial crisis, the introduction of addictive opioid painkillers, and the obesity epidemic may have played a part.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.