Mortality experts have explained the real reason why American millennials are dying at an ‘alarming rate’.
It seems like Americans are dying at a much higher rate than those who live in other developed countries, with around three million US citizen deaths being reported each year.
So, why is this happening? According to a report by Slate, one quarter of these deaths wouldn’t happen if the US was ‘only as deadly as its peers’.
Through analysis published on JAMA, experts looked at the death rates in 22 countries from 1980 to 2023 and ‘computed numbers of excess deaths attributable to the US mortality disadvantage by taking the difference between observed and expected US deaths’.
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Through this research, it was uncovered that Americans are dying at a higher rate than other people of similar age in other developed countries.
In the study, it details how these deaths ‘highlight the continued consequences of US health system inadequacies, economic inequality, and social and political determinants of health’.
As a result, Americans are ‘2.6 times more likely to die as early adults than those in other rich countries’.
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While it is not completely clear why millennials in the US suffer this disadvantage, there are some indicators that could be related to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
These factors include unemployment rates increasing as well as increased reports of depression amongst early adults and a rise in drug and alcohol use.
Advancements in technology such as the development of artificial intelligence is also contributing to job instability, with many fearing that their roles could soon be replaced with AI.
While healthcare continues to be a topic of concern in the US, economic uncertainty is leading to many struggling to afford their health insurance.
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The study goes on to explain that the results it found suggest that ‘policy solutions may be found in the experiences of other HICs (high income countries)’.
This includes looking at the welfare and healthcare structure of other countries and analyzing how these policies could potentially be implemented in the US.
According to the report by Slate, it has become a ‘sobering fact’ that young adults in the US are not keeping up with their peers from other HICs, ‘to the point where more of them are losing their lives’.
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However, future research will be needed in order to ‘identify the specific causes of the widening US mortality disadvantage and opportunities for intervention’.