Despite being home to some of the world’s most dangerous animals, Australia has consistently led the English-speaking world in life expectancy for the past 30 years.
In contrast, the United States has ranked last among high-income Anglophone countries since the early 1990s.
A new study led by researchers at Penn State sheds light on why this is the case and offers lessons for improving life expectancy in the U.S.
The study, published in BMJ Open, compared life expectancy in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand using data from the Human Mortality Database and the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 1990 to 2019.
The researchers analyzed the data by sex, age, and cause of death, including categories like cancer, drug- and alcohol-related deaths, firearms, and motor vehicle accidents.
The findings revealed that Australians had the highest life expectancy at birth, with women living nearly four years longer and men living five years longer than their American counterparts.
In contrast, Americans had the shortest life expectancy, with women living an average of 81.5 years and men 76.5 years in 2019. The study also found significant geographical differences in life expectancy within the U.S., with California and Hawaii having the highest averages and the Southeast having some of the lowest.
According to Jessica Ho, the study’s lead author and associate professor at Penn State, one of the main reasons for the shorter life expectancy in the U.S. is the higher death rates among younger people from largely preventable causes, such as drug overdoses, car accidents, and homicides. In midlife, Americans continue to experience high mortality rates from drug and alcohol-related causes, as well as cardiovascular disease, which can be linked to unhealthy behaviors like sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, stress, and smoking.
Australia, however, offers a model for how the U.S. can improve. Like the U.S., Australia is a large country with a history of personal vehicle ownership and some cultural similarities. However, Australia has implemented policies in recent decades that have significantly reduced mortality rates, especially among young adults. These include gun law reforms that have resulted in lower levels of gun deaths and homicides, as well as better management of drug and alcohol use and chronic diseases.
Ho suggests that the U.S. could learn from Australia by investing in public transit, reducing traffic deaths through infrastructure changes like roundabouts, and supporting programs to reduce drug dependence. Additionally, improving access to health care and encouraging healthier lifestyles could help reduce the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the U.S.
Overall, Australia provides a valuable example of how the U.S. can achieve not only a higher life expectancy but also reduce the wide disparities in life expectancy across different regions of the country.
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