1932

Abstract

In recent years, life expectancy in the United States has stagnated, followed by three consecutive years of decline. The decline is small in absolute terms but is unprecedented and has generated considerable research interest and theorizing about potential causes. Recent trends show that the decline has affected nearly all race/ethnic and gender groups, and the proximate causes of the decline are increases in opioid overdose deaths, suicide, homicide, and Alzheimer's disease. A slowdown in the long-term decline in mortality from cardiovascular diseases has also prevented life expectancy from improving further. Although a popular explanation for the decline is the cumulative decline in living standards across generations, recent trends suggest that distinct mechanisms for specific causes of death are more plausible explanations. Interventions to stem the increase in overdose deaths, reduce access to mechanisms that contribute to violent deaths, and decrease cardiovascular risk over the life course are urgently needed to improve mortality in the United States.

[Erratum, Closure]

An erratum has been published for this article:
Erratum: Declining Life Expectancy in the United States: Missing the Trees for the Forest
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-082619-104231
2021-04-01
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/publhealth/42/1/annurev-publhealth-082619-104231.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-082619-104231&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. 1. 
    Alexander MJ, Kiang MV, Barbieri M 2018. Trends in black and white opioid mortality in the United States, 1979–2015. Epidemiology 29:5707–15
    [Google Scholar]
  2. 2. 
    Arias E, Schauman WS, Eschbach K, Sorlie PD, Backlund E 2008. The validity of race and Hispanic origin reporting on death certificates in the United States. Vital Health Stat. 2. 2008:1481–23
    [Google Scholar]
  3. 3. 
    Arriaga EE. 1984. Measuring and explaining the change in life expectancies. Demography 21:183–96
    [Google Scholar]
  4. 4. 
    Autor DH, Duggan MG. 2006. The growth in the Social Security Disability rolls: a fiscal crisis unfolding. J. Econ. Perspect. 20:371–96
    [Google Scholar]
  5. 5. 
    Bandi P, Silver D, Mijanovich T, Macinko J 2015. Temporal trends in motor vehicle fatalities in the United States, 1968 to 2010—a joinpoint regression analysis. Inj. Epidemiol. 2:14
    [Google Scholar]
  6. 6. 
    Bosworth B. 2018. Increasing disparities in mortality by socioeconomic status. Annu. Rev. Public Health 39:237–51
    [Google Scholar]
  7. 7. 
    Bound J, Geronimus AT, Rodriguez JM, Waidmann TA 2015. Measuring recent apparent declines in longevity: the role of increasing educational attainment. Health Aff 34:122167–73
    [Google Scholar]
  8. 8. 
    Brown L, Tucker-Seeley R. 2018. Commentary: Will “deaths of despair” among whites change how we talk about racial/ethnic health disparities. ? Ethn. Dis. 28:2123–28
    [Google Scholar]
  9. 9. 
    Burgard SA, Kalousova L. 2015. Effects of the Great Recession: health and well-being. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 41:181–201
    [Google Scholar]
  10. 10. 
    Case A, Deaton A. 2015. Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. PNAS 112:4915078–83
    [Google Scholar]
  11. 11. 
    Case A, Deaton A. 2017. Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century. Brookings Pap. Econ. Act. 2017:397–476
    [Google Scholar]
  12. 12. 
    Case A, Deaton A. 2020. Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  13. 13. 
    CDC (Cent. Dis. Control Prev.), Natl. Cent. Health Stat 2020. Underlying cause of death, 19992018 CDC WONDER Online Database, retrieved June 4. https://wonder.cdc.gov
    [Google Scholar]
  14. 14. 
    Chetty R, Stepner M, Abraham S, Lin S, Scuderi B et al. 2016. The association between income and life expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014. JAMA 315:161750–66
    [Google Scholar]
  15. 15. 
    Chriqui JF, O'Connor JC, Chaloupka FJ 2011. What gets measured, gets changed: evaluating law and policy for maximum impact. J. Law. Med. Ethics 39:Suppl. 121–26
    [Google Scholar]
  16. 16. 
    Crimmins EM, Preston SH, Cohen B 2011. Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries Washington, DC: Natl. Acad. Press
  17. 17. 
    Crimmins EM, Zhang YS. 2019. Aging populations, mortality, and life expectancy. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 45:69–89
    [Google Scholar]
  18. 18. 
    Cross SH, Mehra MR, Bhatt DL, Nasir K, O'Donnell CJ et al. 2020. Rural-urban differences in cardiovascular mortality in the US, 1999–2017. JAMA 323:181852–54
    [Google Scholar]
  19. 19. 
    Currie J, Schwandt H. 2016. Inequality in mortality decreased among the young while increasing for older adults, 1990–2010. Science 352:6286708–12
    [Google Scholar]
  20. 20. 
    Curtin SC, Arias E. 2019. Mortality trends by race and ethnicity among adults aged 25 and over: United States, 2000–2017 NCHS Data Brief 342, Natl. Cent. Health Stat., Hyattsville, MD. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db342-h.pdf
  21. 21. 
    Cutler DM, Glaeser EL, Norberg KE 2001. Explaining the rise in youth suicide. Risky Behavior Among Youths: An Economic Analysis J Gruber 219–69 Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  22. 22. 
    Dang JN. 2008. Statistical analysis of alcohol-related driving trends, 1982–2005 DOT HS-810 942, Natl. Highw. Traffic Saf. Adm. Washington, DC: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/16493
  23. 23. 
    Dasgupta N, Beletsky L, Ciccarone D 2018. Opioid crisis: no easy fix to its social and economic determinants. Am. J. Public Health 108:2182–86
    [Google Scholar]
  24. 24. 
    Davey Smith G, Egger M 1996. Commentary: understanding it all—health, meta-theories, and mortality trends. BMJ 313:70721584–85
    [Google Scholar]
  25. 25. 
    Desmond M, Papachristos AV, Kirk DS 2016. Police violence and citizen crime reporting in the black community. Am. Sociol. Rev. 81:5857–76
    [Google Scholar]
  26. 26. 
    Diez Roux AV. 2017. Despair as a cause of death: more complex than it first appears. Am. J. Public Health 107:101566–67
    [Google Scholar]
  27. 27. 
    Dowd JB, Hamoudi A. 2014. Is life expectancy really falling for groups of low socio-economic status? Lagged selection bias and artefactual trends in mortality. Int. J. Epidemiol. 43:4983–88
    [Google Scholar]
  28. 28. 
    Dowell D, Arias E, Kochanek K, Anderson R, Guy GP et al. 2017. Contribution of opioid-involved poisoning to the change in life expectancy in the United States, 2000–2015. JAMA 318:111065–67
    [Google Scholar]
  29. 29. 
    Duleep HO. 1989. Measuring socioeconomic mortality differentials over time. Demography 26:2345–51
    [Google Scholar]
  30. 30. 
    Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, Morozoff C, Kutz MJ et al. 2016. US county-level trends in mortality rates for major causes of death, 1980–2014. JAMA 316:222385–401
    [Google Scholar]
  31. 31. 
    Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, Morozoff C, Mackenbach JP et al. 2017. Inequalities in life expectancy among US counties, 1980 to 2014: temporal trends and key drivers. JAMA Intern. Med. 177:71003–11
    [Google Scholar]
  32. 32. 
    Ezzati M, Friedman AB, Kulkarni SC, Murray CJL 2008. The reversal of fortunes: trends in county mortality and cross-county mortality disparities in the United States. PLOS Med 5:4e66
    [Google Scholar]
  33. 33. 
    Fenelon A. 2013. Geographic divergence in mortality in the United States. Popul. Dev. Rev. 39:4611–34
    [Google Scholar]
  34. 34. 
    Fenelon A, Boudreaux M. 2019. Life and death in the American city: men's life expectancy in 25 major American cities from 1990 to 2015. Demography 56:62349–75
    [Google Scholar]
  35. 35. 
    Fenton L, Minton J, Ramsay J, Kaye-Bardgett M, Fischbacher C et al. 2019. Recent adverse mortality trends in Scotland: comparison with other high-income countries. BMJ Open 9:10e029936
    [Google Scholar]
  36. 36. 
    Fingerhut LA, Cox CS. 1998. Poisoning mortality, 1985–1995. Public Health Rep 113:3218–33
    [Google Scholar]
  37. 37. 
    Fontanella CA, Hiance-Steelesmith DL, Phillips GS, Bridge JA, Lester N et al. 2015. Widening rural-urban disparities in youth suicides, United States, 1996–2010. JAMA Pediatr 169:5466–73
    [Google Scholar]
  38. 38. 
    Ford ES, Capewell S. 2007. Coronary heart disease mortality among young adults in the U.S. from 1980 through 2002: concealed leveling of mortality rates. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 50:222128–32
    [Google Scholar]
  39. 39. 
    Garcia MC, Rossen LM, Bastian B, Faul M, Dowling NF et al. 2019. Potentially excess deaths from the five leading causes of death in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties—United States, 2010–2017. MMWR Surveill. Summ. 68:101–11
    [Google Scholar]
  40. 40. 
    Gelman A, Auerbach J. 2016. Age-aggregation bias in mortality trends. PNAS 113:7E816–17
    [Google Scholar]
  41. 41. 
    Geronimus AT, Bound J, Waidmann TA, Rodriguez JM, Timpe B 2019. Weathering, drugs, and whack-a-mole: fundamental and proximate causes of widening educational inequity in U.S. life expectancy by sex and race, 1990–2015. J. Health Soc. Behav. 60:2222–39
    [Google Scholar]
  42. 42. 
    Gillman MW. 2015. Primordial prevention of cardiovascular disease. Circulation 131:7599–601
    [Google Scholar]
  43. 43. 
    Goldring T, Lange F, Richards-Shubik S 2016. Testing for changes in the SES-mortality gradient when the distribution of education changes too. J. Health Econ. 46:120–30
    [Google Scholar]
  44. 44. 
    Grol-Prokopczyk H. 2017. Sociodemographic disparities in chronic pain, based on 12-year longitudinal data. Pain 158:2313–22
    [Google Scholar]
  45. 45. 
    Grucza RA, Sher KJ, Kerr WC, Krauss MJ, Lui CK et al. 2018. Trends in adult alcohol use and binge drinking in the early 21st-century United States: a meta-analysis of 6 national survey series. Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. 42:101939–50
    [Google Scholar]
  46. 46. 
    Gunnell D. 2015. A population health perspective on suicide research and prevention. Crisis 36:3155–60
    [Google Scholar]
  47. 47. 
    Gunnell D, Fernando R, Hewagama M, Priyangika WDD, Konradsen F, Eddleston M 2007. The impact of pesticide regulations on suicide in Sri Lanka. Int. J. Epidemiol. 36:61235–42
    [Google Scholar]
  48. 48. 
    Hadden WC, Rockswold PD. 2008. Increasing differential mortality by educational attainment in adults in the United States. Int. J. Health Serv. 38:147–61
    [Google Scholar]
  49. 49. 
    Han BH, Moore AA, Sherman S, Keyes KM, Palamar JJ 2017. Demographic trends of binge alcohol use and alcohol use disorders among older adults in the United States, 2005–2014. Drug Alcohol Depend 170:198–207
    [Google Scholar]
  50. 50. 
    Harper S, Bruckner TA. 2017. Did the Great Recession increase suicides in the USA? Evidence from an interrupted time-series analysis. Ann. Epidemiol. 27:7409–414.e6
    [Google Scholar]
  51. 51. 
    Harper S, Kaufman JS, Cooper RS 2017. Declining US life expectancy: a first look. Epidemiology 28:6e54–56
    [Google Scholar]
  52. 52. 
    Harper S, Lynch J, Burris S, Davey Smith G 2007. Trends in the black-white life expectancy gap in the United States, 1983–2003. JAMA 297:111224–32
    [Google Scholar]
  53. 53. 
    Harper S, Lynch J, Davey Smith G 2011. Social determinants and the decline of cardiovascular diseases: understanding the links. Annu. Rev. Public Health 32:39–69
    [Google Scholar]
  54. 54. 
    Harper S, MacLehose RF, Kaufman JS 2014. Trends in the black-white life expectancy gap among US States, 1990–2009. Health Aff 33:81375–82
    [Google Scholar]
  55. 55. 
    Harper S, Rushani D, Kaufman JS 2012. Trends in the black-white life expectancy gap, 2003–2008. JAMA 307:212257–59
    [Google Scholar]
  56. 56. 
    Hedegaard H, Curtin SC, Warner M 2018. Suicide mortality in the United States, 1999–2017 NCHS Data Brief 330, Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db330-h.pdf
  57. 57. 
    Hedegaard H, Miniño AM, Warner M 2018. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 1999–2017 NCHS Data Brief 329, Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db329-h.pdf
  58. 58. 
    Hendi AS. 2015. Trends in U.S. life expectancy gradients: the role of changing educational composition. Int. J. Epidemiol. 44:3946–55
    [Google Scholar]
  59. 59. 
    Heuveline P, Tzen M. 2020. Beyond deaths per capita: three CoViD-19 mortality indicators for temporal and international comparisons. medRxiv 20085506. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.29.20085506
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  60. 60. 
    Ho JY. 2013. Mortality under age 50 accounts for much of the fact that US life expectancy lags that of other high-income countries. Health Aff 32:3459–67
    [Google Scholar]
  61. 61. 
    Ho JY. 2019. The contemporary American drug overdose epidemic in international perspective. Popul. Dev. Rev. 45:17–40
    [Google Scholar]
  62. 62. 
    Ho JY, Hendi AS. 2018. Recent trends in life expectancy across high income countries: retrospective observational study. BMJ 362:k2562
    [Google Scholar]
  63. 63. 
    Hoffman KM, Trawalter S, Axt JR, Oliver MN 2016. Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. PNAS 113:164296–301
    [Google Scholar]
  64. 64. 
    IHS (Indian Health Serv.) 2019. Indian health disparities Fact Sheet, IHS Rockville, MD: https://www.ihs.gov/sites/newsroom/themes/responsive2017/display_objects/documents/factsheets/Disparities.pdf
  65. 65. 
    Ivey-Stephenson AZ, Crosby AE, Jack SPD, Haileyesus T, Kresnow-Sedacca M-J 2017. Suicide trends among and within urbanization levels by sex, race/ethnicity, age group, and mechanism of death—United States, 2001–2015. MMWR Surveill. Summ. 66:181–16
    [Google Scholar]
  66. 66. 
    Jalal H, Buchanich JM, Roberts MS, Balmert LC, Zhang K, Burke DS 2018. Changing dynamics of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States from 1979 through 2016. Science 361:6408eaau1184
    [Google Scholar]
  67. 67. 
    Jones CM, Einstein EB, Compton WM 2018. Changes in synthetic opioid involvement in drug overdose deaths in the United States, 2010–2016. JAMA 319:171819–21
    [Google Scholar]
  68. 68. 
    Jones DS. 2006. The persistence of American Indian health disparities. Am. J. Public Health 96:122122–34
    [Google Scholar]
  69. 69. 
    Kaufman JS, Riddell CA, Harper S 2019. Black and white differences in life expectancy in 4 US states, 1969–2013. Public Health Rep 134:6634–42
    [Google Scholar]
  70. 70. 
    Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Wilkinson RG 1999. The Society and Population Health Reader: Income Inequality and Health New York: New Press
  71. 71. 
    Kiang MV, Basu S, Chen J, Alexander MJ 2019. Assessment of changes in the geographical distribution of opioid-related mortality across the United States by opioid type, 1999–2016. JAMA Netw. Open 2:2e190040
    [Google Scholar]
  72. 72. 
    Kiang MV, Humphreys K, Cullen MR, Basu S 2020. Opioid prescribing patterns among medical providers in the United States, 2003–17: retrospective, observational study. BMJ 368:l6968
    [Google Scholar]
  73. 73. 
    Kindig DA, Cheng ER. 2013. Even as mortality fell in most US counties, female mortality nonetheless rose in 42.8 percent of counties from 1992 to 2006. Health Aff 32:3451–58
    [Google Scholar]
  74. 74. 
    King NB, Fraser V, Boikos C, Richardson R, Harper S 2014. Determinants of increased opioid-related mortality in the United States and Canada, 1990–2013: a systematic review. Am. J. Public Health 104:8e32–42
    [Google Scholar]
  75. 75. 
    King NB, Strumpf E, Harper S 2016. Has the increase in disability insurance participation contributed to increased opioid-related mortality?. Ann. Intern. Med. 165:10729–30
    [Google Scholar]
  76. 76. 
    Kochanek KD, Arias E, Bastian BA 2016. The effect of changes in selected age-specific causes of death on non-Hispanic white life expectancy between 2000 and 2014 NCHS Data Brief 250, Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db250.pdf
  77. 77. 
    Krieger N, Chen JT, Ebel G 1997. Can we monitor socioeconomic inequalities in health? A survey of U.S. health departments’ data collection and reporting practices. Public Health Rep 112:6481–91
    [Google Scholar]
  78. 78. 
    Krieger N, Rehkopf DH, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Marcelli E, Kennedy M 2008. The fall and rise of US inequities in premature mortality: 1960–2002. PLOS Med 5:2e46
    [Google Scholar]
  79. 79. 
    Kunitz SJ. 2008. Ethics in public health research: changing patterns of mortality among American Indians. Am. J. Public Health 98:3404–11
    [Google Scholar]
  80. 80. 
    Lipari RN, Van Horn SL 2013. Trends in substance use disorders among adults aged 18 or older. CBHSQ Report Short Rep. 2790, Subst. Abuse Ment Health Serv. Adm. Rockville, MD: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2790/ShortReport-2790.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  81. 81. 
    Lopez AD, Adair T. 2019. Is the long-term decline in cardiovascular-disease mortality in high-income countries over? Evidence from national vital statistics. Int. J. Epidemiol. 48:61815–23
    [Google Scholar]
  82. 82. 
    Lynch J, Davey Smith G, Harper S, Hillemeier M 2004. Is income inequality a determinant of population health? Part 2. U.S. national and regional trends in income inequality and age- and cause-specific mortality. Milbank Q 82:2355–400
    [Google Scholar]
  83. 83. 
    Ma J, Siegel RL, Islami F, Jemal A 2019. Temporal trends in liver cancer mortality by educational attainment in the United States, 2000–2015. Cancer 125:122089–98
    [Google Scholar]
  84. 84. 
    Macinko J, Elo IT. 2009. Black-white differences in avoidable mortality in the USA, 1980–2005. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 63:9715–21
    [Google Scholar]
  85. 85. 
    Martínez-Alés G, Keyes KM. 2019. Fatal and non-fatal self-injury in the USA: critical review of current trends and innovations in prevention. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 21:10104
    [Google Scholar]
  86. 86. 
    Massey JT. 1967. Suicide in the United States, 1950–1964 Rep. 20(5), Div. Vital Stat., Natl. Cent Health Stat. Rockville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_20/sr20_005.pdf
  87. 87. 
    Masters RK, Tilstra AM, Simon DH 2017. Mortality from suicide, chronic liver disease, and drug poisonings among middle-aged U.S. white men and women, 1980–2013. Biodemogr. Soc. Biol. 63:131–37
    [Google Scholar]
  88. 88. 
    Masters RK, Tilstra AM, Simon DH 2018. Explaining recent mortality trends among younger and middle-aged white Americans. Int. J. Epidemiol. 47:181–88
    [Google Scholar]
  89. 89. 
    McKeown RE, Cuffe SP, Schulz RM 2006. US suicide rates by age group, 1970–2002: an examination of recent trends. Am. J. Public Health 96:101744–51
    [Google Scholar]
  90. 90. 
    Meara ER, Richards S, Cutler DM 2008. The gap gets bigger: changes in mortality and life expectancy, by education, 1981–2000. Health Aff 27:2350–60
    [Google Scholar]
  91. 91. 
    Mehta NK, Abrams LR, Myrskylä M 2020. US life expectancy stalls due to cardiovascular disease, not drug deaths. PNAS 117:136998–7000
    [Google Scholar]
  92. 92. 
    Mehta NK, Elo IT, Engelman M, Lauderdale DS, Kestenbaum BM 2016. Life expectancy among U.S.-born and foreign-born older adults in the United States: estimates from linked Social Security and Medicare data. Demography 53:41109–34
    [Google Scholar]
  93. 93. 
    Mensah GA, Wei GS, Sorlie PD, Fine LJ, Rosenberg Y et al. 2017. Decline in cardiovascular mortality. Circ. Res. 120:2366–80
    [Google Scholar]
  94. 94. 
    Montez JK, Berkman LF. 2014. Trends in the educational gradient of mortality among US adults aged 45 to 84 years: bringing regional context into the explanation. Am. J. Public Health 104:1e82–90
    [Google Scholar]
  95. 95. 
    Montez JK, Hummer RA, Hayward MD, Woo H, Rogers RG 2011. Trends in the educational gradient of U.S. adult mortality from 1986 through 2006 by race, gender, and age group. Res. Aging 33:2145–71
    [Google Scholar]
  96. 96. 
    Montez JK, Zajacova A, Hayward MD, Woolf SH, Chapman D, Beckfield J 2019. Educational disparities in adult mortality across U.S. states: How do they differ, and have they changed since the mid-1980s. ? Demography 56:2621–44
    [Google Scholar]
  97. 97. 
    Moy E, Garcia MC, Bastian B, Rossen LM, Ingram DD et al. 2017. Leading causes of death in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas—United States, 1999–2014. MMWR Surveill. Summ. 66:11–8
    [Google Scholar]
  98. 98. 
    Natl. Cancer Inst 2019. Mortality—all COD, aggregated with county, total U.S. (19692017), <Katrina/Rita population adjustment>- Linked to county attributes - total U.S., 19692018 counties SEER*Stat Version 8.3.6, Natl. Cancer Inst., Surveill. Res. Progr., Hyattsville, MD, updated August 8. https://seer.cancer.gov/seerstat/
    [Google Scholar]
  99. 99. 
    Natl. Cent. Health Stat 2018. Table 41. Severe headache or migraine, low back pain, and neck pain among adults aged 18 and over, by selected characteristics: United States, selected years 1997–2016. Health, United States 2017 Rep., Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2017.htm#041
    [Google Scholar]
  100. 100. 
    Natl. Res. Counc., Crimmins EM, Preston SH, Cohen B 2010. International Differences in Mortality at Older Ages: Dimensions and Sources Washington, DC: Natl. Acad. Press
  101. 101. 
    Natl. Res. Counc., Woolf SH, Aron L 2013. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health Washington, DC: Natl. Acad. Press
  102. 102. 
    Norström T, Ramstedt M. 2005. Mortality and population drinking: a review of the literature. Drug Alcohol Rev 24:6537–47
    [Google Scholar]
  103. 103. 
    Noymer A, Garenne M. 2000. The 1918 influenza epidemic's effects on sex differentials in mortality in the United States. Popul. Dev. Rev. 26:3565–81
    [Google Scholar]
  104. 104. 
    Ogburn WF, Thomas DS. 1922. The influence of the business cycle on certain social conditions. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 18:139324–40
    [Google Scholar]
  105. 105. 
    Olfson M, Blanco C, Wall M, Liu S-M, Saha TD et al. 2017. National trends in suicide attempts among adults in the United States. JAMA Psychiatry 74:111095–103
    [Google Scholar]
  106. 106. 
    Olshansky SJ, Antonucci T, Berkman L, Binstock RH, Boersch-Supan A et al. 2012. Differences in life expectancy due to race and educational differences are widening, and many may not catch up. Health Aff 31:81803–13
    [Google Scholar]
  107. 107. 
    Pappas G, Queen S, Hadden W, Fisher G 1993. The increasing disparity in mortality between socioeconomic groups in the United States, 1960 and 1986. N. Engl. J. Med. 329:2103–9
    [Google Scholar]
  108. 108. 
    Peters DJ, Monnat SM, Hochstetler AL, Berg MT 2020. The opioid hydra: understanding overdose mortality epidemics and syndemics across the rural-urban continuum. Rural Sociol 85:589–622
    [Google Scholar]
  109. 109. 
    Pickett KE, Wilkinson RG. 2015. Income inequality and health: a causal review. Soc. Sci. Med. 128:316–26
    [Google Scholar]
  110. 110. 
    Pitt AL, Humphreys K, Brandeau ML 2018. Modeling health benefits and harms of public policy responses to the US opioid epidemic. Am. J. Public Health 108:101394–400
    [Google Scholar]
  111. 111. 
    Pletcher MJ, Kertesz SG, Kohn MA, Gonzales R 2008. Trends in opioid prescribing by race/ethnicity for patients seeking care in US emergency departments. JAMA 299:170–78
    [Google Scholar]
  112. 112. 
    Preston SH, Elo IT. 1995. Are educational differentials in adult mortality increasing in the United States. ? J. Aging Health 7:4476–96
    [Google Scholar]
  113. 113. 
    Preston SH, Vierboom YC, Stokes A 2018. The role of obesity in exceptionally slow US mortality improvement. PNAS 115:5957–61
    [Google Scholar]
  114. 114. 
    Ramstedt M. 2008. Alcohol and fatal accidents in the United States—a time series analysis for 1950–2002. Accid. Anal. Prev. 40:41273–81
    [Google Scholar]
  115. 115. 
    Riddell CA, Morrison KT, Kaufman JS, Harper S 2018. Trends in the contribution of major causes of death to the black-white life expectancy gap by US state. Health Place 52:85–100
    [Google Scholar]
  116. 116. 
    Ritchey MD, Wall HK, George MG, Wright JS 2020. US trends in premature heart disease mortality over the past 50 years: Where do we go from here?. Trends Cardiovasc. Med. 30:364–74
    [Google Scholar]
  117. 117. 
    Roberts MT, Reither EN, Lim S 2019. Contributors to Wisconsin's persistent black-white gap in life expectancy. BMC Public Health 19:1891
    [Google Scholar]
  118. 118. 
    Rosenberg CE. 1992. Explaining Epidemics and Other Studies in the History of Medicine Cambridge, MA/New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
  119. 119. 
    Rosenfeld R, Gaston S, Spivak H, Irazola S 2017. Assessing and responding to the recent homicide rise in the United States NCJ 251067, Natl. Inst. Justice Washington, DC: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/251067.pdf
  120. 120. 
    Rostron BL, Boies JL, Arias E 2010. Education reporting and classification on death certificates in the United States. Vital Health Stat. 2 2010:1511–21
    [Google Scholar]
  121. 121. 
    Roth GA, Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, Morozoff C et al. 2017. Trends and patterns of geographic variation in cardiovascular mortality among US counties, 1980–2014. JAMA 317:191976–92
    [Google Scholar]
  122. 122. 
    Ruhm CJ. 2015. Recessions, healthy no more. ? J. Health Econ. 42:17–28
    [Google Scholar]
  123. 123. 
    Ruhm CJ. 2019. Drivers of the fatal drug epidemic. J. Health Econ. 64:25–42
    [Google Scholar]
  124. 124. 
    Ryerson AB, Schillie S, Barker LK, Kupronis BA, Wester C 2020. Vital signs: newly reported acute and chronic hepatitis C cases—United States, 2009–2018. MMWR 69:14399–404
    [Google Scholar]
  125. 125. 
    Sasson I. 2016. Trends in life expectancy and lifespan variation by educational attainment: United States, 1990–2010. Demography 53:2269–93
    [Google Scholar]
  126. 126. 
    Sasson I, Hayward MD. 2019. Association between educational attainment and causes of death among white and black US adults, 2010–2017. JAMA 322:8756–63
    [Google Scholar]
  127. 127. 
    Satcher D, Fryer GE Jr., McCann J, Troutman A, Woolf SH, Rust G 2005. What if we were equal? A comparison of the black-white mortality gap in 1960 and 2000. Health Aff 24:2459–64
    [Google Scholar]
  128. 128. 
    Schmid CH. 2016. Increased mortality for white middle-aged Americans not fully explained by causes suggested. PNAS 113:7E814
    [Google Scholar]
  129. 129. 
    Schnittker J, Do D. 2020. Pharmaceutical side effects and mental health paradoxes among racial-ethnic minorities. J. Health Soc. Behav. 61:4–23
    [Google Scholar]
  130. 130. 
    Serdula MK, Brewer RD, Gillespie C, Denny CH, Mokdad A 2004. Trends in alcohol use and binge drinking, 1985–1999: results of a multi-state survey. Am. J. Prev. Med. 26:4294–98
    [Google Scholar]
  131. 131. 
    Shanahan L, Hill SN, Gaydosh LM, Steinhoff A, Costello EJ et al. 2019. Does despair really kill? A roadmap for an evidence-based answer. Am. J. Public Health 109:6854–58
    [Google Scholar]
  132. 132. 
    Sharkey P, Friedson M. 2019. The impact of the homicide decline on life expectancy of African American males. Demography 56:2645–63
    [Google Scholar]
  133. 133. 
    Siddiqi A, Sod-Erdene O, Hamilton D, Cottom TM, Darity W Jr 2019. Growing sense of social status threat and concomitant deaths of despair among whites. SSM—Popul. Health 9:100449
    [Google Scholar]
  134. 134. 
    Sidney S, Quesenberry CP Jr., Jaffe MG, Sorel M, Nguyen-Huynh MN et al. 2016. Recent trends in cardiovascular mortality in the United States and public health goals. JAMA Cardiol 1:5594–99
    [Google Scholar]
  135. 135. 
    Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A 2020. Cancer statistics, 2020. CA Cancer J. Clin. 70:17–30
    [Google Scholar]
  136. 136. 
    Singh GK. 2003. Area deprivation and widening inequalities in US mortality, 1969–1998. Am. J. Public Health 93:71137–43
    [Google Scholar]
  137. 137. 
    Singh GK, Siahpush M. 2002. Increasing inequalities in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among US adults aged 25–64 years by area socioeconomic status, 1969–1998. Int. J. Epidemiol. 31:3600–13
    [Google Scholar]
  138. 138. 
    Singh GK, Siahpush M. 2014. Widening rural-urban disparities in all-cause mortality and mortality from major causes of death in the USA, 1969–2009. J. Urban Health 91:2272–92
    [Google Scholar]
  139. 139. 
    Smart R, Morral AR, Smucker S, Cherney S, Schell T et al. 2020. The Science of Gun Policy: A Critical Synthesis of Research Evidence on the Effects of Gun Policies in the United States Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2nd ed.
  140. 140. 
    Spencer MR, Warner M, Bastian BA, Trinidad JP 2019. Drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl, 2011–2016. Natl. Vital Stat. Rep. 68:31–19
    [Google Scholar]
  141. 141. 
    Stallones RA. 1980. The rise and fall of ischemic heart disease. Sci. Am. 243:553–59
    [Google Scholar]
  142. 142. 
    Stat. Can 2019. Changes in life expectancy by selected causes of death, 2017. The Daily May 30. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/daily-quotidien/190530/dq190530d-eng.pdf?
    [Google Scholar]
  143. 143. 
    Steelesmith DL, Fontanella CA, Campo JV, Bridge JA, Warren KL, Root ED 2019. Contextual factors associated with county-level suicide rates in the United States, 1999 to 2016. JAMA Netw. Open 2:9e1910936
    [Google Scholar]
  144. 144. 
    Strumpf EC, Charters TJ, Harper S, Nandi A 2017. Did the Great Recession affect mortality rates in the metropolitan United States? Effects on mortality by age, gender and cause of death. Soc. Sci. Med. 189:11–16
    [Google Scholar]
  145. 145. 
    Tompson T, Benz J. 2013. The public mood: white malaise but optimism among blacks, Hispanics Res. Highlights, Assoc. Press–NORC Cent. Public Aff. Res. Chicago: https://apnorc.org/projects/the-public-mood-white-malaise-but-optimism-among-blacks-hispanics/
  146. 146. 
    Vaughan AS, Ritchey MD, Hannan J, Kramer MR, Casper M 2017. Widespread recent increases in county-level heart disease mortality across age groups. Ann. Epidemiol. 27:12796–800
    [Google Scholar]
  147. 147. 
    Vierboom YC. 2020. Trends in alcohol-related mortality by educational attainment in the U.S., 2000–2017. Popul. Res. Policy Rev. 39:177–97
    [Google Scholar]
  148. 148. 
    Vierboom YC, Preston SH, Hendi AS 2019. Rising geographic inequality in mortality in the United States. SSM—Popul. Health 9:100478
    [Google Scholar]
  149. 149. 
    Wang H, Schumacher AE, Levitz CE, Mokdad AH, Murray CJ 2013. Left behind: widening disparities for males and females in US county life expectancy, 1985–2010. Popul. Health Metr. 11:18
    [Google Scholar]
  150. 150. 
    Warner M, Chen LH, Makuc DM, Anderson RN, Miniño AM 2011. Drug poisoning deaths in the United States, 1980–2008 NCHS Data Brief 81, Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db81.pdf
  151. 151. 
    WHO (World Health Organ.) 2020. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) weekly epidemiological update and weekly operational update. Situation Reports https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
    [Google Scholar]
  152. 152. 
    Wing S, Hayes C, Heiss G, John E, Knowles M et al. 1986. Geographic variation in the onset of decline of ischemic heart disease mortality in the United States. Am. J. Public Health 76:121404–8
    [Google Scholar]
  153. 153. 
    Woolf SH, Schoomaker H. 2019. Life expectancy and mortality rates in the United States, 1959–2017. JAMA 322:201996–2016
    [Google Scholar]
  154. 154. 
    Xu J. 2018. Trends in liver cancer mortality among adults aged 25 and over in the United States, 2000–2016 NCHS Data Brief 314, Natl. Cent. Health Stat. Hyattsville, MD: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db314.pdf
  155. 155. 
    Zibbell JE, Asher AK, Patel RC, Kupronis B, Iqbal K et al. 2018. Increases in acute hepatitis C virus infection related to a growing opioid epidemic and associated injection drug use, United States, 2004 to 2014. Am. J. Public Health 108:2175–81
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-082619-104231
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-082619-104231
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error