US Health In International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health

The Panel on Understanding Differences in Health Across High-Income Countries compared the health of Americans with that of 16 peer countries and found a pervasive disadvantage on multiple measures of mortality and morbidity that has existed for decades and has been getting worse over time. This presentation will review the data, including the U.S. ranking on life expectancy; all-cause and disease-specific mortality rates across a diverse group of conditions; death rates by age groups, sex, and race-ethnicity; and the prevalence of diseases and injuries across the life course. The panel found a pervasive U.S. disadvantage in almost every analysis it conducted, including disturbing trends in women, children, and adolescents. Although the disadvantage is accentuated in vulnerable populations that suffer from well-known health disparities, the panel's analyses revealed that even "advantaged" Americans (non-Hispanic whites, upper-income, college educated, insured, etc.) have shorter lives and poorer health than comparable groups in peer countries. A handful of conditions for which the U.S. has an advantage, such as cancer screening and survival after age 75, will also be discussed.