Suicide and drug overdoses, which rural people are at more risk of, help decrease average life expectancy in the U.S. - Entrepreneur Generations

Age-adjusted suicide rates by county urbanization level. (CDC chart; click on the image to enlarge it)

An increase in suicide and drug overdoses, which affect rural areas disproportionately, has pulled down life expectancy in the United States. "Overall, there were more than 2.8 million U.S. deaths in 2017, or nearly 70,000 more than the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It was the most deaths in a single year since the government began counting more than a century ago," Mike Stobbe reports for The Associated Press.

There were more than 47,000 suicides last year, the highest rate in at least 50 years, Stobbe reports. The suicide rate was higher at all urbanization levels in 2017 than in 1999, but it increased more in rural areas, and the more rural a person, the higher their risk for suicide. The age-adjusted suicide rate for the most rural counties in 2017 was 53 percent higher than the rate in 1999, according to the CDC figures. The age-adjusted suicide rate for the most rural counties was 1.4 times the rate for the most urban counties in 1999, which increased in 2017 to 1.8 times the rate.

What's causing the increase in both suicides and drug overdoses? Dr. William Dietz, a disease prevention expert at George Washington University, told Stobbe that financial struggles, a widening income gap and divisive politics are causing Americans to despair: "I really do believe that people are increasingly hopeless, and that that leads to drug use, it leads potentially to suicide."

A survey of more than 115,000 voters conducted by the AP buttresses Dietz's opinion: "About half of voters nationwide said they expect life in America for the next generation to be worse than it is today. Nearly a quarter said life would be better and about as many said it would be the same," Stobbe reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2RAb7PR Suicide and drug overdoses, which rural people are at more risk of, help decrease average life expectancy in the U.S. - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet