Public healthAmericans’ health worst among high-income countries

On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.  The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans — those who have health insurance, college educations, higher incomes, and healthy behaviors — appear to be sicker than their peers in other rich nations (see also the project’s Web site).

“We were struck by the gravity of these findings,” said Steven H. Woolf, professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and chair of the panel that wrote the report.  “Americans are dying and suffering at rates that we know are unnecessary because people in other high-income countries are living longer lives and enjoying better health.  What concerns our panel is why, for decades, we have been slipping behind.”

A National Research Council release reports that the report is the first comprehensive look at multiple diseases, injuries, and behaviors across the entire life span, comparing the United States with sixteen peer nations — affluent democracies that include Australia, Canada, Japan, and many Western European countries.  Among these countries, the United States is at or near the bottom in nine key areas of health: infant mortality and low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; prevalence of HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability.

Many of these health conditions disproportionately affect children and adolescents, the report says.  For decades, the United States has had the highest infant mortality rate of any high-income country, and it also ranks poorly on premature birth and the proportion of children who live to age 5.  U.S. adolescents have higher rates of death from traffic accidents and homicide, the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, and are more likely to acquire sexually transmitted infections.  Nearly two-thirds of the difference in life expectancy between males in the United States and these other countries can be attributed to deaths before age 50.

These findings build on a 2011 Research Council report which documented a growing mortality gap among Americans over age 50.  “It’s a tragedy. Our report found that an equally large, if not larger, disadvantage exists among younger Americans,” Woolf said.  “I don’t think most parents know that, on average,