Americans are dying young at alarming rates | Hacker News Reader

Americans are dying young at alarming rates

washingtonpost.com

28 pointsvo2maxer14 comments

“US life expectancy has not kept pace with that of other wealthy countries and is now decreasing.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187

mainly because of drug and substance abuse and suicide. Highlights the need for mental health treatment and perhaps more education around the perils of self medicating.

What's driving drug and substance abuse and suicide in the United States? Why is our mental health so poor? I think there's root causes to these questions and I think they point to our extreme income inequalities.

Just like the top-level issue (overall mortality), this is likely multi-faceted and caused by several sub-issues. ODs can largely be traced to drug policies (overperscription, non-treatment, economic incentives to tamper with drugs, ect)

We have a pretty substantial "loser class". People that have jobs that don't pay well and aren't held in esteem. Many within this group don't feel they have a chance at upward mobility (and may be right). This has been especially hard on middle-aged people who've seen a tremendous growth in suicidality (which is still less than younger folks, but has seen explosive growth).

We don't treat mental illness and heavily stigmatize it. We engage in a number of habits that likely result in poor mental health. There's less face to face interaction. We spend large amounts of time sitting perfectly still in the same exact spaces, and have poor diets.

There's likely a ton of things that are contributing. I'm not sure there's a silver bullet, singular "cause" that's driving this.

> The death rate among African Americans is up 4 percent, Hispanics 7 percent, whites 12 percent and Native Americans 18 percent. The rate for Asian Americans also has increased, but at a level that is not statistically significant.

I wonder about the racial differences too. Why are Asian Americans and African Americans much lower? Don't they deal with the same income inequalities?

Good point. Why is everyone so unhappy when the economy is supposedly doing sooo well.

The economy isn’t doing that well. It’s pretty stagnant. It’s the stock market that is doing well. But stock market != economy.

Are Americans on average more successful at their first attempt of suicide? (obviously firearms play a part in this)

Surely the smoking gun (or elephant in the room) is that medical care and medical insurance are very expensive in the USA, whilst other developed nations are adopting universal healthcare?

I’m not sure if the lack of universal healthcare is a cause or a symptom of the problem.

As the article points out, people are engaging in more self destructive behaviors. These behaviors are much more influenced by social and cultural support systems than anything else.

Read the JAMA article here, rather than the dumbed-down summary: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187?gu...

There are lots of interesting details. Notably, the increases are mostly in the male population.

Why not read both? The WaPo article links to the JAMA report and also to previous ones. It also elicits some comments from other researchers in the field. I am curious why you’re adding “dumbed-down” to “summary.” In addition, in the first comment, I quoted from the original report and inserted a link.

Partly because the WaPo article is behind a paywall. But mostly because journalists' glosses of scientific articles tend to be mediocre at best, and usually far worse. These days especially, it's important to go to the source.

I wonder if binge drinking culture is a factor here?

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