Americans Spend More Time Living with Diseases, Sick 12.4 Yrs on Ave., More Yrs Burdened By Disease

'Americans spend more time living with diseases than rest of world, study shows,' The Guardian, Dec. 11, 2024.

American Medical Association finds people in US are sick for an average of 12.4 years, an increase from figure in 2000
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Americans spend more time living with diseases than people from other countries, according to a new study. On Wednesday, the American Medical Association published its latest findings, revealing that Americans live with diseases for an average of 12.4 years. Mental and substance-use disorders, as well as musculoskeletal diseases, are main contributors to the years lived with disability in the US, per the study.

Americans spend more time living with diseases than people from other countries, according to a new study. Women in the US exhibited a 2.6-year higher so-called healthspan-lifespan gap (representing the number of years spent sick) than men, increasing from 12.2 to 13.7 years or 32% beyond the global mean for women. The latest overall healthspan-lifespan gap in the US marks an increase from 10.9 years in 2000 to 12.4 years in 2024, resulting in a 29% higher gap than the global mean.

Globally, the healthspan-lifespan gap has widened over the last 20 years, extending to 9.6 years from 8.5 years in 2000 – a 13% increase.

Following the US in the largest healthspan-lifespan gaps were Australia at 12.1 years, New Zealand at 11.8 years, the UK and Northern Ireland at 11.3 years and Norway at 11.2 years. By contrast, the smallest healthspan-lifespan gaps were seen in Lesotho at 6.5 years, Central African Republic at 6.7 years, Somalia and Kiribati at 6.8 years and and Micronesia at 7 years.

Describing the results, the study’s authors, Armin Garmany and Andre Terzic, said: “These results underscore that around the world, while people live longer, they live a greater number of years burdened by disease.” The study added that in line with global trends, the gap in the US coincided with a disproportionate growth in life expectancy v health-adjusted life expectancy. In the US, life expectancy increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years in women, and from 74.1 to 76.3 years in men, the study revealed. ---

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/11/americans-living-with-diseases-health-study