[HN Gopher] Americans die earlier than the English across the in...
___________________________________________________________________
Americans die earlier than the English across the income
distribution
Author : nabla9
Score : 42 points
Date : 2023-03-31 21:23 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| hparadiz wrote:
| America is a much larger country with a much larger difference in
| outcome between different people.
|
| A person in South Carolina will have a different life from
| someone in say Santa Barbara, California.
| KarlKemp wrote:
| This is incredibly drastic data.
| anbende wrote:
| Is it? The difference is in 2-4 year range for most of the
| chart. Is 2-4 years of life expectancy drastic? I didn't read
| it as such, but I'm not really sure how to assess how big that
| difference is, honestly...
| pcurve wrote:
| each dot represents metro area representing 100k.
|
| I wonder how this would look if you separate the data by race and
| average weight?
| sparker72678 wrote:
| The article breaks it down; disparity is consistent across age,
| race, gender, income...
| makeitdouble wrote:
| Curious how you isolate for race between two separate
| continents ?
| philosopher1234 wrote:
| If you break it down by weight this becomes uninteresting.
| Weight is a health outcome. "People who are less healthy die
| sooner" no kidding.
| nicoburns wrote:
| This seems unsurprising given the drastic differences in typical
| diet and exercise levels, and the availability of healthcare.
| michaelt wrote:
| Eh, we Brits are no models of good diet and exercise. According
| to [1] while Americans have the highest obesity rates among
| major countries, Brits have the third-highest obesity rates.
|
| [1] https://metro.co.uk/2018/03/21/british-people-fat-no-
| denying...
| anbende wrote:
| While that's true, the difference may still be enough to
| explain the 2-4 year difference in life expectancy that is
| shown on the chart.
| EngManagerIsMe wrote:
| We've had decades of systematic removal of protections and
| healthcare for people. There is zero political interest in
| improving things (and even when there is _some_ , it's opposed
| brutally.)
|
| Both parties are responsible for dismantling the infrastructure
| to care for the humans who live here in favor of profit seeking.
| Republicans perhaps only slightly more so, but this is the
| obvious "finding out" result of the "fuck around" period we've
| had since the 70s.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| The Financial Times column from where it comes from:
|
| https://enterprise-sharing.ft.com/error-pages/expired-link?c...
| fernly wrote:
| Thanks, but the link has "expired".
| Avshalom wrote:
| here's a twitter thread with a lot more diagrams.
| https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799627128143873
| xjlin0 wrote:
| Obesity play a role in this. I wish the study can consider the
| body weight too.
| Avshalom wrote:
| it did
| https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799922583326720
| it's not nearly the only thing. it's a smaller gap than guns,
| cars, and drugs
|
| and as the npr article from a couple days ago and this point
| out https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799742228144130
| https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799722418556931
|
| the gap is there at all ages.
| petschge wrote:
| Sure. But is that a cause or an effect?
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Pretty sure dying early doesn't make you fat.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Americans are fatter because their food is toxic and their
| car centric lifestyle is sedentary and unhealthy
| eightysixfour wrote:
| I think they meant is it the cause of dying early or an
| effect of whatever is killing Americans.
| petschge wrote:
| That part is easy. But did being fat lead to health
| problems (that then also kill you), or did health problems
| lead to being fat (which then also kills you)?
|
| And that is before we get into the entire bit where the
| data shows that most of the difference comes from lives
| lost at mid age (betwqeen ages 5 and 40), which is younger
| than the range where "being fat" typically catches up to
| you.
| nicoburns wrote:
| I would suggest that poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle
| lead to both people being fat and to health issues. FWIW,
| it's been a common pattern for friends of mine who visit
| the US for even short periods of say 2 weeks to put on
| small but noticable amounts of weight.
| yeknoda wrote:
| Race/age correction please...
| jessaustin wrote:
| You want USA to look _worse_? If so, by all means, emphasize
| our racial disparities.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Sure there will be lots of hypotheses for why this is the case.
| In my experience, though, you can almost ignore longevity and
| just look at these sociological differences that make the
| _quality of life_ better for the English:
|
| 1. You could easily argue that frequenting a pub _shortens_ your
| lifespan, but I just loved "pub culture" when I visited
| colleagues in England. It's a great antidote to loneliness.
|
| 2. You can argue all you want that the NHS has loads of problems,
| but even some rich people in the US, when faced with serious
| medical issues, their first thought is "will this bankrupt me" or
| "will I get hit with a giant unexpected medical bill"? Our
| healthcare system in the US is simply indefensible.
|
| 3. Cities and towns in England are just much more walkable,
| "congenial" in general, e.g. row houses instead of separate,
| fenced off suburban houses with yards in the US.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-03-31 23:01 UTC)