Jessica Ho - Duke University
America’s Lagging Life Expectancy: International Comparisons of U.S. Mortality
Date: 10/03/2013 (Thu)
Time: 3:30pm- 5:00pm
Location: Seminar will be held on-site: Gross Hall - 270
Organizer: Vickie Bowes
Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)
All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.
3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)
Additional Comments: ABSTRACT: Life expectancy at birth in the United States is currently among the lowest of all high-income countries. Previously, research and policy discussions focused largely on cross-national mortality differences at older ages (e.g., at ages 50 and above). This talk highlights several key dimensions of Americans' mortality disadvantage relative to a set of 16 high-income comparison countries, with an emphasis on estimating the contribution of mortality differences at younger ages to the U.S. shortfall in life expectancy at birth and identifying the causes of death contributing to Americans’ excess mortality below age 50 in a recent period. I also examine whether the mortality performance of a long series of American birth cohorts relative to their counterparts in the comparison countries is consistent with inferences drawn from period data. I find that mortality differences below age 50 account for the majority of the average gap in life expectancy at birth between American males and their counterparts in other high-income countries. Among females, this figure is 41%. The major causes of death responsible for Americans’ excess years of life lost below age 50 are homicide, unintentional injuries, perinatal conditions, and noncommunicable diseases. I also find that rankings of age-specific mortality rates for U.S. birth cohorts born between 1850 and 2004 are highly consistent with the distinctive age pattern of rankings of recent period U.S. death rates.