(CNN) - A new study finds life expectancy in the United States lags behind other high-income nations by an average of nearly five years.
In 2018, life expectancy in the U.S. was 78.7 years.
That's about three years less than the average life expectancy for 16 high-income peer countries.
But the life expectancy gap ballooned to nearly five years in 2020 after the U.S. experienced a particularly high mortality rate.
No other nation experienced a decline in life expectancy as large as the U.S.
Authors of the study wrote the predominant cause for this large decline was the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other factors that have impacted Americans' health for decades.
The study was published Wednesday in the BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the British Medical Association.
grinchman042 on June 29th, 2021 at 16:53 UTC »
OP buried the lede. The US has been lagging other rich countries’ life expectancy for 40 years, and it’s well-known. The new finding is how the differential impact of COVID-19 exacerbated that difference, as well as racial/ethnic disparities within the US.
torstargoldie on June 29th, 2021 at 16:05 UTC »
Crippling medical costs, poor diet, lack of nutritional education. This isn't suprising in the slightest
wirerc on June 29th, 2021 at 15:29 UTC »
We have same life expectancy as Cuba, a country under our sanctions, while spending 11 times more per capita. FDA just approved an Alzheimer drug that had both studies stopped as futile and failed to show any cognitive benefit, but is priced at $56000 per year and might cost taxpayers more than NASA if widely prescribed through Medicare.