Long lives America……..with dimming twilight years

Long lives America……..with dimming twilight years

The duration of life has got a new lease in the US, with the National Center for Health Statistics stating in its latest report that Americans lived for as long as 77.6 years in year 2003 and mortality was fed lesser by heart ailments, various cancers and strokes, with such deaths ranging between 2-5 percent.

This also means that the average life expectancy has climbed to 77.6 years for people born in 2003, from 77.3 in 2002. It was 74.8 years for males and 80.1 years for women in 2003. From the last benchmark of 1990, when it was 75.4 years, expectancy of life has consistently moved up, thanks to improvements in medical science and hygiene as also a plunge in unhealthy habits like smoking.

The report is drawn on the basis of the most recent data gathered by the Center and several other healthcare institutions.

Although the expectancy figures are a cause of cheer, the good news was eclipsed partially by data pertaining to the age segment 55 to 64, wherein 50% of these elderly are gripped with high blood pressure and two out of five are suffering from obesity.

Therefore, in comparison to the elderly born 10 years earlier than this current segment, the latter is in deteriorating condition. In 1990, 42% of the 1930s born had high BP, whereas in the 1940s born 50% suffered from the affliction as of today; the 1930s group has a 31% obesity rate, lower than 39% of the 1940s born. The exception was in the case of cholesterol, because of advances in controlling drugs, with 35% of the 1930s and just 23% of the 1940s group gripped with high cholesterol.

The worrisome trend is indicative of life expectancy going down in the future, after the ongoing high. Healthcare advances and technology may control the negative effect, but this cannot be taken for granted.

According to Dr. Julie Gerberding, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, the 55 to 64 age segment should pay more attention on preventing illnesses and should change over to a healthier lifestyle.

The concern about this age group's health condition translates into sheer economics; these elderly Americans will soon come under the government Medicare and Social Security system, and their health conditions are directly proportional to the quantum of taxes the average citizen will shell out.

Worse, the 55--64 age segment is projected to increase to 40 million in 2014 from 29 million in 2004, a direct fall out of what is known as the “baby boom” of the period 1946-64 in America, after the war.

Correspondingly, there was a rise in government expenditure on health sectors to the tune of 7.7%. This formed 15.3 % of the GDP, as against 14.9% in 2002.

Other statistics in the report went thus: (1) Baby mortality in 2003 was a little lesser at 6.9 infant deaths out of 1000 births, maintaining the downward trend since 1958. (2) Expenditure on medicines and life-saving drugs went up to 11 % in 2003. (3) 28% of the adult population suffered from pain of the lower back.

Though America has cause to smile with the improvement in life duration, it still has some steps to go compared to Japan's life expectancy of 81.9 years in 2002, trailed by Monaco's 81.2, San Marino and Switzerland's 80.6, Australia's 80.4, Andorra's 80.3 and Iceland's 80.1 years.