ATLANTA, June 11, 2008
Average U.S. Life Expectancy Tops 78
Mortality Falls In All Leading Causes Of Death, But Still Lags Behind 30 Other Countries
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For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years, the government reported, although the United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span. (CBS/AP)
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The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005.
Japan has the longest life expectancy - 83 years for children born in 2006, according to World Health Organization data. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list.
"The international comparisons are not that appealing, but we may be in the process of catching up," said Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer. He is co-chairman of a National Research Council panel looking at why America's life expectancy is lower than other nations'.
The new U.S. data, released Wednesday, come from the National Center for Health Statistics. It's a preliminary report of 2006 numbers, based on data from more than 95 percent of the death certificates collected that year.
Life expectancy is the period a child born in 2006 is expected to live, assuming mortality trends stay constant.
The 2006 increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates for nine of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.
"I think the most surprising thing is that we had declines in just about every major cause of death," said Robert Anderson, who oversaw work on the report for the health statistics center.
The overall death rate fell from 799 per 100,000 in 2005 to about 776 the following year.
Health statisticians noted declines of more than 6 percent in stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease (including bronchitis and emphysema), and a drop of more than 5 percent in heart disease and diabetes deaths. Indeed, the drop in diabetes deaths was steep enough to allow Alzheimer's disease - which held about steady - to pass diabetes to become the nation's sixth leading cause of death.
The U.S. infant mortality rate dropped more than 2 percent, to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, from 6.9.
Perhaps the most influential factor in the 2006 success story, however, was the flu. Flu and pneumonia deaths dropped by 13 percent from 2005, reflecting a mild flu season in 2006, Anderson said. That also meant a diminished threat to people with heart disease and other conditions. Taken together, it's a primary explanation for the 22,000 fewer deaths in 2006 from 2005, experts said.
U.S. life expectancy has been steadily rising, usually by about two to three months from year to year. This year's jump of fourth months is "an unusually rapid improvement," Preston said.
Life expectancy was up for both men and women, and whites and blacks. Although the gaps are closing, women continue to live longer, almost to 81, compared to about 75 for men. Among racial categories, white women have the highest life expectancy (81 years), followed by black women (about 77 years), white men (76) and black men (70). Health statisticians said they don't have reliable data to calculate Hispanic life expectancy, but they hope to by next year.
Increases in female smoking are a major reason that men's life expectancy is catching up with the women's, Preston said. Improvements in the care of heart disease - a major health problem for black Americans - helps explain an improving racial gap, he said.
About 2.4 million Americans died in 2006, according to the report.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 30 CommentsThe health conscious can complain all they want about smokers, the over weight, the drinkers, etc, eating up the health care system. I disagree. I see it that the health conscious people who strive to live forever are the ones eating up social security, forcing older retirement ages, using up medicare and who will eventually become a burden on society and their children or grandchildren.
30 years in a nursing home...no thanks. Going through money like it''s water. Alzheimers. Highlight of your day is lunch & dinner. Then bed. Repeat ad infinitum.
You actually watch PBS? More appropriately, do you actually believe what you see and hear on PBS? You may as well be asking Rosie O''Lardass for her ''objective'' thoughts on the twin towers on 9/11.
Great point about raising the SS age. Makes you wonder who really is the brain child behind this here study.
You are so right. The SS retirement age will keep going up and up so regardless of longevity we will still end up working until we are almost dead.
Today''s youth don''t think this affects them...however there are only so many jobs available. I would rather let the old folks enjoy a few years of retirement and let the ambitious youth get the jobs.
They never wanted us to have the money, they stole from us!
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More Americans, living longer-- what a frightening prospect to HMO privately "managed health care" !
The HMO, the organization created just in time to make the world safe for insurance companies, has an ulterior purpose-- to stave off indefinitely the prospect of universal, single-payer healthcare.
With the triumph of the HMO, some 47 million ordinary Americans are routinely abandoned to their own devices, as a matter of course. That is the wisdom of the market, we are told (and lower deck steerage can fend for itself).
We are reminded to appreciate the HMO for keeping costs down. (?!) And to applaud when an HMO tycoon gets a lavish bonus-- hoping none of us wonders why the money he "saved" isn''t reinvested in better care for more people, or in lower premiums for health coverage.
Clearly, that was never the plan. In fact, there is no plan to increase the amount and improve the kind of healhcare delivered per dollar spent. The role of the HMO is more that of an auditor than a healer. Which suggests an interesting analogy-- to ask the HMO for healthcare is to ask a prison for job training.
With the GOP, it is power to the privileged. And McBush wants to keep it that way.
Of course, that was before the Labor Dept. recalculated the number of hours per week we''ll now have to work to pay for gas.
Even the Wall Street Journal, hardly a source of left-wing looniness, says what we have now is a dysfunctional mess and needs major fixing. But the pols and the CEOs stand to lose too much if we get rid of corporate health "care", so I guess we should all just plan to never get sick or hurt, and raise a cup of hemlock when the time comes.
"Gee, wonder why Teddy didn''''t go to India or Cuba for his brain surgery? Do you think he''''s just not aware of this wonderful opportunity?"
As a congressman, Teddy got the best healthcare insurance in the world. No need to shop around for the lowest cost doctor/hospital/clinic. My info was for our hard working un-insured and under-insured Americans.
Incidentally, our wonderful Market (PROFIT) based healthcare system is the only private industry in the world where there is no competition. Also, it is the only industry in the world that each year prices itself more and more out of the market.
STUPID !!!
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