U.S. Life Expectancy Fell By 1.5 Years In 2020, The Biggest Drop Since WWII

NPR ^ | July 21, 2021 | JANE GREENHALGH

[be-baw]

Life expectancy in the United States declined by a year and a half in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the coronavirus is largely to blame.

COVID-19 contributed to 74% of the decline in life expectancy from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

It was the largest one-year decline since World War II, when life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years between 1942 and 1943. Hispanic and Black communities saw the biggest declines.

For African Americans, life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years from 74.7 years in 2019 to 71.8 in 2020.

U.S. Hispanics — who have a longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Blacks or whites saw the largest decline in life expectancy during the pandemic, dropping 3 years from 81.8 years in 2019 to 78.8 years in 2020. Hispanic males saw the biggest decline, with a drop of 3.7 years. COVID-19 was responsible for 90% of the decline among Hispanics.

The increase in drug overdose deaths was also a factor in declining life expectancy. More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020. That's the highest number reported in a single year. Other causes of death contributing to the decline were increases in homicide and deaths from diabetes and chronic liver disease.

Just last month a study published in the British Medical Journal looked at life expectancy data for the U.S. and compared it to life expectancy data from 16 other high income countries. The study found the U.S. decrease in life expectancy from 2018 to 2020 was 8.5 times greater than the average decrease in peer countries. And the U.S. declines were most pronounced among minority groups, specifically Black and Hispanic people.

Study author Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, told NPR's Allison Aubrey, "We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It's a horrific decrease in life expectancy."

"It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the U.S.," Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.

"The range of factors that play into this include income inequality, the social safety net, as well as racial inequality and access to health care," Curtis said.

[Scram1]

From the abstract page:
“ Life expectancy in the US decreased disproportionately among racial and ethnic minority groups between 2018 and 2020, declining by 3.88, 3.25, and 1.36 years in Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White populations, respectively.”

https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1343

NPR is playing with inaccurate descriptions.

[be-baw]

I don’t see any difference between the NPR stats and the BMJ stats. What am I missing?

[Scram1]

“For African Americans, life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years from 74.7 years in 2019 to 71.8 in 2020.

U.S. Hispanics — who have a longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Blacks or whites “

The category of white is non-Hispanic which I have
never ever seen used in any study. Using Hispanic in
a descending order of classification seems strange to me.

[neverevergiveup]

"It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the U.S.," Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.

Predictable, reflexive, irresponsible, and poorly thought-out response. Exactly what you would expect from an academic. Hispanics have generally had higher life-expectancy than whites in the US. Is that systemic racism? Obesity, smoking, and homicide rates are higher for blacks in the US, and very likely contribute significantly to differences in life expectancy.

Life expectancy for blacks in African nations are significantly less than those in the US (with less discrepancy for some Northern African countries). Is that because of systemic racism in majority black countries?

There are a lot of things that affect life expectancy. Jumping to the conclusion that disparities are secondary to systemic racism is a broad leap and an irresponsible one absent definitive data that prove this claim.

[be-baw]

“There are a lot of things that affect life expectancy. Jumping to the conclusion that disparities are secondary to systemic racism is a broad leap and an irresponsible one absent definitive data that prove this claim.”

I completely agree. Thanks for your excellent post.

[snarkytart]

probably all the damn shootings in places like NYC and Chicago.

These are averages after all.

[ransomnote]

Denying sick people medical treatment, telling them to return when they need to be put on oxygen, has the effect of shortening lifespan.

[buwaya]

The biggest difference between Hispanics and blacks lifespans in the US is that blacks have much higher infant mortality. Hispanic infant mortality is very low.

The Hispanic experience also serves to demonstrate that this metric, of lifespan, has little or nothing to do with economics, in the US, as their median household income isn’t much different from that of black people.

[.44 Special]

Lemme get this straight. Are we talking about:
Non-White Hispanics
Non-Black Hispanics
White Hispanics
Black Hispanics
Non-Hispanic Hispanics
Or Hispanic Hispanics?
When they start this crap you know it obfuscation. How about the overall U.S. population. We can’t even be one people in death.
-
The real factor was all the deaths in nursing homes.

[Pollard]

That’s what I was thinking. We heard for a year that the average covid death age was the same as average US life expectancy.

Now the life expectancy drops?

White kids committing suicide and black kids shooting each other.

[lepton]

If all were COVID, you’d expect a big bounce-back in the statistic. On the other hand, there is also the effects of millions of people avoiding medical diagnosis and treatment for more than a year.