Americans Live Longer, Still Lag Other Rich Countries

[Stuart G]

Source: NBC News

Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News
1 hour ago


Americans may be living longer and even exercising a little more, but we really are not much healthier than we were 10 years ago and we are still far behind other rich countries when it comes to our health, researchers said Wednesday.

The biggest survey of U.S. health in 15 years breaks down death, disease and disability county by county – and makes some very unflattering comparisons to other countries. It’s a big, comprehensive dive into what kills us and what makes us sick.

It finds that how healthy you are depends on where you live. If you live in a rich area like San Francisco, Colorado or the suburbs of Washington D.C., you’re likely as healthy as the Swiss or Japanese. If you live in Appalachia or the rural South, you’re likely to be as unhealthy as people in Algeria or Bangladesh.

Our biggest enemies are our own bad habits – poor diet, smoking and obesity. They’re far more dangerous to our health than pollution or risks from radiation. And although women used to be far healthier than men, men are closing the gap fast, the survey by Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington and colleagues finds.


Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/americans-live-little-longer-still-lag-other-rich-countries-6C10588107

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Very Sad about the U.S.A... very good article if you have the time ..I quote the 3rd paragraph:

It finds that how healthy you are depends on where you live. If you live in a rich area like San Francisco, Colorado or the suburbs of Washington D.C., you’re likely as healthy as the Swiss or Japanese. If you live in Appalachia or the rural South, you’re likely to be as unhealthy as people in Algeria or Bangladesh.

[marybourg]

1. The worst bad habit is

voting Republican

[Igel]

2. You quote effect.

Not cause.

Go to a poor area and you find that it's not the area and it's not the poverty, it's the people.

In general: more education = better health. Control for race and ethnicity, more education = better health. Control for age, and more education = better health. Control for geography, more education = better health. Control for income, and more education = better health.

This is in addition to the generalization that more education = better income. If you take all families making 12-15k/year (making sure to eliminate health as a reason for the low income) and pick the bottom and top quartiles for education, you'll find a health difference, even if the education difference is likely to be not all that great.

In general, geographical differences are a matter of accident (although if you're agrarian, living in a rich, fertile area is probably better than living in a swamp or the Sonoran desert).

For some groups, it's not a big difference. But we're talking aggregate here, so even that little difference would alter the overall statistics. Yes, it's appropriate to blame the victim.