After years of decline, Americans’ health appears to be improving.
Historically, the United States has lagged behind its peers when it comes to rates of chronic diseases, addictions, illnesses, and life expectancy, despite allocating the majority of its national income to health spending.
But new data from the CDC and other major health agencies show that a number of health markers are beginning to improve, including cancer mortality, drug overdoses, obesity rates and life expectancy.
Experts attribute the decline in the top three to increased screening, improved treatments, access to drug treatments and medications, and the use of weight-loss drugs.
And it is because of the decline in those aspects that the life expectancy of Americans may be increasing.
LONGER LIVES
It may be due to improvements in obesity, cancer mortality and drug deaths that life expectancy appears to have increased slightly.
In 2022, life expectancy at birth was estimated to be 77.5 years. This was an increase from 76.1 years in 2021, but is still lower than a decade ago when it was 78.8 years, according to CDC data.
Death rates fell in all age groups, but infant mortality increased.
A driving force behind the increase could be a decrease in Covid deaths. Before the pandemic in 2019, life expectancy was 78.8 years, but it fell in 2020 to 77.3 and again in 2021 to 76.1.
A change in attitudes and behavior towards alcohol and drugs may also be behind this increase.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that a record 39 percent of Americans said consuming one or two drinks a day is bad for their health, an increase of 11 percentage points from five years earlier.
Additionally, the survey found that 76 percent of Americans said cigarettes and 54 percent said vaporizers were very harmful to a person’s health.
While on the rise, life expectancy in the United States still lags behind many of its peers. In the UK, life expectancy is 82 years; in France and Italy it is 83 years; in Spain it is 84; and the average throughout the European Union is 81.5 years at birth.
FEWER DEATHS FROM DRUGS
The map above shows the percentage change in drug overdoses state by state from the year beginning April 2023 to April 2024.
Preliminary data shows that drug overdoses fell 12 percent nationally from April 2023 (112,470 deaths) to April 2024 (97,309 deaths).
This is the lowest number of deaths since February 2021, but is still more than double what it was almost a decade ago.
Significant progress in the drug epidemic was made in North Carolina, where deaths decreased by 23 percent, and in Nebraska, where deaths decreased by 30 percent.
But Alaska and Oregon saw large increases in overdose deaths, with increases of 42 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Nearly all drugs tracked by the CDC saw decreases in overdoses. Year over year, from April 2023 to April 2024, 1,830 fewer people died from cocaine; 1,719 fewer died from heroin; and 12,123 fewer died from opioids.
While experts have not reached a consensus on what is driving the decline, some believe it is due to the increased availability of the life-saving Narcan, which can reverse certain overdoses, and increased public education and awareness about the drugs. dangers of fentanyl.
However, others have postulated that deaths are declining simply because the fentanyl crisis has been so catastrophic that it has run out of people to kill.
BEAT CANCER
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Another encouraging trend is the decline in cancer deaths.
The cancer mortality rate has followed a downward trend since 2015, going from 160 deaths per 100,000 cancer patients to 142 deaths per 100,000 patients in 2022.
This is the lowest rate of cancer deaths in a decade, when the rate was 164 deaths in 2013, according to the National Cancer Institute. Between 2013 and 2022, death rates have decreased by an average of 1.7 percent each year.
And the average five-year survival rate for cancer has been increasing. According to the American Cancer Societythe rate was 69 percent between 2013 and 2019, an increase from 49 percent in 1977.
Survival rates are highest for thyroid cancer (99 percent), prostate cancer (97 percent), and testicular cancer (95 percent).
The lowest rates are for the pancreas (13 percent), liver and esophagus (22 percent), and lungs (25 percent). However, all of these cancers have seen an increase in survival since 1977, when rates were three percent for the pancreas and liver, five percent for the esophagus, and 12 percent for the lung.
The ACS attributes the five-year rate increase to better cancer screening, which leads to earlier detection when the disease is more treatable. Additionally, advances in treatments and therapies, especially immunotherapy, have helped increase survival rates.
Overall, cancer incidence rates have also decreased, although breast and colon cancers have seen an increase, especially in diagnoses among young people.
THINNER WAISTS
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A recent CDC report found that American adults with obesity also appear to be declining, falling from nearly 42 percent in 2020 to 40.3 percent in 2021.
This is the first time there has been a year-over-year decline since the CDC began regularly tracking the metric in 2013, although the change is not statistically significant.
However, experts say it could be a sign that obesity rates will no longer continue to rise.
The decline comes amid a boom in weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, although experts have previously told DailyMail.com it is still too early to tell if the drugs are playing a role.
Despite the slight drop, rates remain higher than a decade ago, when about 38 percent of adults were obese.
