Skip to main content

Midlife Mortality Higher in U.S. Than Other High-Income Countries

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 16, 2024.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, April 16, 2024 -- Working-age adults in the United States are dying at higher rates than their peers in high-income countries, according to a study published online March 21 in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Jennifer Beam Dowd, Ph.D., from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues synthesized cause-specific mortality trends in midlife (25 to 64 years) for the United States; United Kingdom; 13 high-income countries in Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan; and seven Central and Eastern European countries (1990 to 2019).

The researchers found that U.S. midlife mortality rates have worsened since 1990 for deaths related to drugs, alcohol, suicide, and metabolic, nervous system, respiratory, and infectious/parasitic diseases. There was a decline in deaths due to homicide, transport accidents, and cardiovascular diseases since 1990, although there have been recent increases or stalling of improvements. Comparatively, midlife mortality increased in the United Kingdom for people aged 45 to 54 years and in Canada, Poland, and Sweden for those aged 25 to 44 years.

"Over the past three decades midlife mortality in the United States has worsened significantly compared to other high-income countries, and for the younger 25- to 44-year-old age group in 2019 it even surpassed midlife mortality rates for Central and Eastern European countries," coauthor Katarzyna Doniec, Ph.D., also from University of Oxford, said in a statement. "This is surprising, given that not so long ago some of these countries experienced high levels of working-age mortality, resulting from the post-socialist crisis of the 1990s."

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted April 2024

Read this next

BMI Cutoff of 30 for Obesity May Be Too High for Middle-Aged, Older Adults

FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 -- The optimal body mass index (BMI) cutoff point appears to be 27 kg/m2 for detecting obesity in middle-aged and older adults, according to a study presented...

Emergency Inguinal Hernia Surgery Rates Increased With Lower Country Income

FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 -- For patients undergoing inguinal hernia surgery, emergency surgery rates increase from high- to low-income countries, according to a study published online...

Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Levels Higher in Black Than White Women

FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 -- Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels are higher in Black than White pregnant women, supporting the use of accounting for these differences in...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.