Trump regime will resolve this problem by wiping out funding for this kind of research as well as collection of data
By Juan Siliezar, Associate Director of Media Relations and Leadership Communications, School of Public Health, Brown University
The
findings were detailed in a new study in the New England Journal of
Medicine by a team led by researchers at the Brown University School of Public
Health.
The analysis compared data from more than 73,000 adults in
the U.S. and different regions of Europe who were age 50 to 85 in 2010 to
determine how wealth affects a person’s chances of dying. The results revealed
that people with more wealth tend to live longer than those with less wealth,
especially in the U.S., where the gap between the rich and poor is much larger
than in Europe.
Comparison data also showed that at every wealth level in
the U.S., mortality rates were higher than those in the parts of Europe the
researchers studied. The nation’s wealthiest Americans have shorter lifespans
on average than the wealthiest Europeans; in some cases, the wealthiest
Americans have survival rates on par with the poorest Europeans in western
parts of Europe such as Germany, France and the Netherlands.
U.S. life expectancy has been declining in recent years,
said study author Irene Papanicolas, a professor of health services, policy and
practice at Brown. The study provides a more detailed picture of life
expectancy across demographics in the U.S. compared to different parts of
Europe, she said.
"The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from the systemic issues in the U.S. contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet or environmental hazards,” said Papanicolas, who directs the School of Public Health’s Center for Health System Sustainability. “If we want to improve health in the U.S., we need to better understand the underlying factors that contribute to these differences — particularly amongst similar socioeconomic groups — and why they translate to different health outcomes across nations.”
According to the study, individuals in the wealthiest
quartile had a death rate that is 40% lower than for individuals in the poorest
quartile. Individuals in Continental Europe died at rates approximately 40%
lower than participants in the U.S. throughout the study period. Participants
from Southern Europe had estimated death rates around 30% lower than U.S.
participants over the study period, while participants from Eastern Europe have
estimated death rates 13% to 20% lower.
“We found that where you stand in your country’s wealth
distribution matters for your longevity, and where you stand in your country
compared to where others stand in theirs matters, too” said study author Sara
Machado, a research scientist at Brown’s Center for Health System
Sustainability. “Fixing health outcomes is not just a challenge for the most
vulnerable — even those in the top quartile of wealth are affected.”
The study, which analyzed data from the U.S. Health and
Retirement Study and Europe’s Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement,
underscores how weaker social safety nets and structural disparities in the
U.S. may contribute to poorer survival rates across all wealth groups. These
shortcomings disproportionately affect the poorest residents but ultimately
leave even the wealthiest Americans more vulnerable than their European
counterparts, the researchers argued.
The study noted how systemic cultural and behavioral
factors, such as diet, smoking and social mobility, may also play a role. For
example, smoking rates and living in rural areas — both linked to poorer health
— were more common in the U.S.
The researchers also highlighted a “survivor effect” in the
U.S., where poorer individuals with worse health outcomes were more likely to
die earlier, leaving behind a population that is healthier and wealthier as age
groups progress. This creates the illusion that wealth inequality decreases
over time, when in reality it’s partly due to the early deaths of the poorest
Americans.
“Our previous work has shown that while wealth inequality
narrows after 65 across the U.S. and Europe, in the U.S. it narrows because the
poorest Americans die sooner and in greater proportion,” Papanicolas said.
The researchers said the findings provide a sobering view of
U.S. health outcomes and a call to action for policymakers to address a growing
wealth-mortality gap with policies that have a broader focus than the health
system’s shortcomings.
“If you look at other countries, there are better outcomes,
and that means we can learn from them and improve," Machado said. “It’s
not necessarily about spending more — it’s about addressing the factors we’re
overlooking, which could deliver far greater benefits than we realize.”
