Living Longer

Since I've moved to a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), I have become more aware of how long many people now live. My mother was considered old when she died at 71; I was working close to full time beyond this age. Just about all of the people I dine with are in their 80s, some in their 90s and a few 100 or older. Longer life expectancy is the norm in just about all advanced countries. However, this longer life expectancy is not de rigeur in the U.S. of A. 

A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation concluded that in more than 80% of the counties in the states people's life expectancy was less than the ten countries with the highest life expectancy. One of the study's co-authors says, “Despite the fact that the US spends more per capita than any other nation on health, eight out of every 10 counties are not keeping pace in terms of health outcomes. That’s a staggering statistic.”

The difference is substantial. In many counties the life expectancy is 15 (to 50) years less than that of the top 10 countries. And the study authors believe that our poor performance is not due to the size of our country,racial factors or economics.The researchers suggest that the relatively low life expectancies in the US cannot be explained by the size of the nation, racial diversity, or economics. It is high rates of obesity, tobacco use, and other preventable risk factors for an early death that result in our dismal performance. Another quote from the authors, “It’s not the health care system that’s having the biggest impact on health; it’s the community.  The average person in the US spends one hour annually in a physician’s office unless they are really sick. So until we start moving our interventions out into the communities where people live, we are not going to get ahead of these problems.”

A sobering study.