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. 2019 Apr 30;1(1):6-14.
doi: 10.13023/jah.0101.02. eCollection 2019.

The Social Determinants of Health and the Decline in U.S. Life Expectancy: Implications for Appalachia

Steven H Woolf  1 , Heidi Schoomaker  2 , Latoya Hill  3 , Christine M Orndahl  4
Affiliations

The Social Determinants of Health and the Decline in U.S. Life Expectancy: Implications for Appalachia

Steven H Woolf et al. J Appalach Health. .

Abstract

For the past century, life expectancy in industrialized countries has increased, and the U.S. has shared in that progress. However, beginning in the 1980s, advances in U.S. life expectancy began to lose pace with peer countries. By 1998, U.S. life expectancy had fallen below the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development nations. U.S. life expectancy peaked in 2014 and has been decreasing for three consecutive years, a trend not been seen since the influenza pandemic a century ago. Put simply, U.S. health is in decline.

Keywords: Appalachia; Social Determinants of Health; life expectancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing financial or editorial interests were reported by the authors of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
All-cause mortality among U.S. adults aged 25–64 years
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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