Research reveals an alarming trend that has been happening to middle-aged Americans. It was found out that there is an increase of death rate among middle aged white Americans aged 45-54. This is quite surprising since nearly all Americans in every age and racial group, have seen a decrease in death rates for decades now except the middle-aged white ones.
CNN reports that the death rates of middle aged white Americans have increased by half a percent each year according to researchers at Princeton University. Researchers analyzed mortality data between 1999-2013 from Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile middle-aged blacks and Hispanics are said to have a 2% annual decrease in death rates between 1999 and 2013.
The death rate for middle aged white Americans have seen a decline of 2% each year in the last two decades.
Anne Case, professor of economics and public affair at Princeton University and co-author of the study said, "We have come to expect mortality rates in the middle age to continue to decline, which they did throughout most of the 20th century...it was really a surprise to see a sustained period when mortality rates actually increased (among middle-aged white Americans)."
Angus Deaton, a professor at Princeton and winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economic science and husband of Case are both co-authors of the study which was published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The only other time that death rates increased among the middle-aged white Americans was in the 1960s because of smoking-related illnesses.
The spike in the death rates of the said group is mainly attributed to drug and alcohol poisoning, suicide and liver diseases. On the other hand, deaths among black Americans with the same causes dropped between 1999 and 2013.
The same causes have also increased the death rates among white Americans aging 35-44 and 55-64 however the leap is not large to cause alarm unlike the middle-aged group.
More so, it was found out that death often happens to individuals with high school education or less. Case pointed out that a lack of economic opportunities may have led to more despair and abusing drugs and alcohol in turn to individuals with less education.
"We have a lot more work to do to pin down how much of this has to do with not having as many economic resources with just a high school degree," and how much of it is due to other factors, such as less secure pension plans, Case said.
There seems to be an epidemic of hopelessness that surrounds middle-aged white Americans that have not affected the blacks and Hispanics. Other countries seem not to have experienced this as well. Further research needs to be taken to uncover reasons behind the rise of death rates among middle-aged white Americans. It seems to go beyond biological decline. What do you think? Share us your thoughts about this by leaving your comments below.
