[Pophealth] 2021 Health Olympics & vast US Health decline

[Stephen Bezruchka]

Today the UN released its human development report with life expectancy for 2021. You can access it (Table 1) at http://report.hdr.undp.org.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

 I've been using the UN rankings to create the health Olympics since the early 1990s for consistency.   The U.S. ranks 44th, down from tied for 36 in 2019.  We are 7.6 years behind the longest lived country, Japan.  If we eradicated our three leading killers (heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19), we would be close to the first in the finish line.  In the UN rankings Thailand is now ahead of us!  And quite a few poorer nations.

Trying to get action on our not being dead first is challenging.

Stephen

Stephen Bezruchka MD, MPH
Departments of Health Systems and Population Health & of Global Health
School of Public Health
Box 357660
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington 98195-7660
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