Sometimes I don’t think the editors of the Washington Post read the Washington Post. In their editorial they assert that there are some straightforward strategies for increasing life expectancy:
Fixing the country’s life-and-death problem, in this light, will require confronting some of its broadest and deepest rooted issues. But focusing on incentives to promote better health, so that the tide moves with the project instead of against it, will provide a manageable place to begin.
After considering and rejecting many of the ideas that motivated the ACA, they finally light on raising the taxes on tobacco and imposing taxes on processed foods, for example, on foods containing high fructose corn syrup. Somehow I doubt that the decline in our national life expectancy was caused by tobacco or high-fructose corn syrup. Maybe we’re accumulating new bad habits faster than we’re shedding bad old ones.
Unmentioned is that there is evidence that religious people live longer.
My own view is that for the very young, health care may well be the deciding factor on whether you live or die, for the young adults up to middle age behavior is probably the most significant determining factor, while for the elderly heredity is of increasing importance.
Why did Jim Fixx die at 52? He did a lot of things right—some very right and yet he died in early middle age. His father had died at 43 and it has been found that he was predisposed to the heart problems that caused his death and he had behaved very poorly as a young man.
I consider myself fortunate in my choice of when I was born and who my ancestors were. Childhood care enabled me to survive past childhood, my own good judgment (and the bad examples of several of my ancestors) persuaded me to avoid some of my ancestors’ bad behaviors, and barring those bad behaviors or even in spite of them the ancestors whose DNA I’ve inherited tended to be quite long-lived. We tend not to be predisposed to the diseases of aging, e.g. arthritis and heart disease. I’ve already outlived my father, all of my grandparents, and I’m catching up to my great-grandparents.
The 2 studies cited are not very good. They are both too small. They both do a poor job of excluding socialization as a factor and selection bias. Religious is poorly defined as we know that people report going to church much more often than they actually do. There are better studies, but those fail to nail down why there is an increase. As of now I think I would consider it a correlation and causative.
Eat and drink in moderation, exercise, socialize, dont do illegal stuff and dont kill yourself. Take your meds if you need them.
Steve
And live someplace with a good public health system.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/republican-politics-south-midwest-life-expectancy/
Steve
I think there are a lot of factors, but ultimately it’s not something that’s conducive to a lot of government action, even if government action was directionally correct, which it often hasn’t been.
Got more detailed info on the Deaton paper that started this. What’s interesting is that the decrease in mortality is largely limited to white people who dropped out of high school and live in rural areas. It is also pretty geographically variable. And, while the deaths of despair are part of it, it’s largely a lack fo care for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.
This lead me to review some literature. While obesity is probably part of the issue when you look at obesity data obesity rates are inversely related to income and education for women but it’s not for men with poor men having the lowest rate of obesity. Rural areas are more white and drink a bit more. City pole more likely to be black and they shoot each other more often. My SWAG is that it’s a combination of access and culture. Rural areas with better longevity appear to have better public health care.
Steve