Recent Trends in US Life Expectancy and the Importance of Stalling Declines in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality. Webinar, 30 September 2021
Webinar
September 30, 2021
16.00-17:30 CET
After decades of robust growth, the rise in US life expectancy stalled after 2010. Explanations for the stall usually focus on rising drug-related deaths and social and economic crises among working aged adults. In this talk, I discuss how a stagnation in the decline in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality has been the main culprit in US life expectancy slowdowns, outpacing and overshadowing the effects of all other death causes. Moreover, much of the overall U.S. life expectancy stagnation appears attributable to adverse trends in death rates among older adults pointing to a more wide-ranging set of explanations for lagging U.S. mortality beyond that of crises among working aged adults. I will discuss potential explanations for the stagnation in U.S. CVD mortality declines and evidence on heterogeneity in the stagnation across geography, gender, and age groups.
Neil Mehta
is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Population Health at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and Emory University. His research lies at the intersection of demography and epidemiology with a focus on US mortality, health-related behaviors, and health disparities. He is affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and is Co-Director of the national NIA-funded TRENDS Network focused trends in dementia and disability.