Reduced US life expectancy is not
just the Baby Boomers
Duke University
Declining life expectancies in the
U.S. include Gen X and Y Americans, in addition to the older Baby Boomers. But
the causes of premature mortality vary by race, gender and ethnicity, according
to a new study from Duke University.
"We identified late-Gen X (38-
to 45-year-olds) and early-Gen Y (27- to 37-year-olds) as age cohorts with
elevated mortality patterns, particularly for non-Hispanic whites, said study
co-author Emma Zang, a Ph.D. candidate at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
"That is in addition to the rise among the already much-discussed Baby Boomer generation."
"That is in addition to the rise among the already much-discussed Baby Boomer generation."
To study cause of death for Americans born from 1946 to 1992, the researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mortality Multiple Cause Files for the years 1990-2016.
Late Gen X and early Gen Y Americans
were aged 25 to 43 during the Great Recession and faced greater difficulty
finding jobs, which may have contributed to greater health impacts.
"Social scientists and
policymakers are aware of the financial burden for the younger generation, but
the elevated mortality rate among them has largely been ignored," the
authors say in a paper that appears in the December issue of the International
Journal of Epidemiology.
The study examined death rates in
five different age cohorts, comparing men and women, as well as whites, blacks
and Hispanics.
"Few studies have looked at
Hispanics when considering disparities in mortality," Zang said.
The researchers examined nine
leading causes of death for each age cohort, finding that the underlying causes
for increased mortality vary for the different ethnic groups and also between
genders in the cohorts and ethnicities.
For Baby Boomers, five causes of
death drove the rising mortality rates.
"Drug overdoses, external
causes -- such as traffic accidents and homicides, suicides, COPD (chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease) and HIV/AIDS have contributed to the increase in
mortality trends among Baby Boomers across all race, ethnic, and gender
groups," Zang said.
- For the late Gen X (born 1973-1980) and early Gen Y (born 1981-1991) age cohorts, leading causes of death vary by ethnicity:
- For Hispanics, overdoses and suicides are the leading causes of death.
- For non-Hispanic whites, both men and women, overdoses and alcohol-related diseases appear to drive increased mortality.
- For non-Hispanic black women, diabetes-related mortality is increasing.
- For non-Hispanic black men, leading causes are cancer, alcohol-related diseases and external causes, such as traffic accidents.
The time period of the study spans
the opioid abuse crisis and the Great Recession. Some of the disparities may
reflect different access to opioid prescriptions among blacks, whites and
Hispanics, Zang said.