Life Expectancy Drops Biggest Since WWII

 Just read an excellent article entitled, 'US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since second world war.' in the Guardian. It talks about how our life expectancy has dropped and sort of speculates as to the reasons why....(....most likely they are right from a statistical sense in mortality and COVID). 

There has been some indicators that life expectancy may drop from things like pollution and changes in lifestyle. Life is a total environment thing so there will be some additional contributing factors.

A decline in life expectancy with modern advances in medicine is concerning. We will have to take a look at the numbers after COVID to see if they return afterward. 

Life expectancy is based on a lot things that include a healthy lifestyle, good friends, and great food. (One of the reasons why I like to write about fitness and other things of interest.) Its about a persons total life. 

There is something we often miss and that is education. Educational attainment transforms and changes an peoples quality of life and their lifespan. Take a look at this 2013 study The Effect of Educational Attainment on Adult Mortality in the United States

"Presently, the mortality and life expectancy gaps between U.S. adults with the highest and lowest levels of schooling are most likely wider than ever. Moreover, a sizable share of U.S. adults continues to have less than a high school education or completes high school but no secondary education; these millions of individuals will be at higher risk of death on an annual basis in the coming decades compared to their more highly educated counterparts. There is little question that there is significant room for improvement by enhancing U.S. population health through increases in educational attainment, particularly for the sizable number of individuals who do not complete a high school degree." (Hummer & Hernandez, 2013).

Hummer, R. A., & Hernandez, E. M. (2013). The Effect of Educational Attainment on Adult Mortality in the United States. Population bulletin, 68(1), 1–16.

Side note......

Education changes people's lives and we can often see those differences in subtle ways that impact just about everything we do. If you knew the French fry was going to give you a heart attack would you eat a basket of them every night? It can be a lot more subtle because education changes the way in which we connect concepts and leads to more connections in the brain that process information differently. I'm not an expert in that field but seems correct to me. You can see these differences as well years down the road in life choices. All in all its better to just sort of get kids into school when they are young and pliable to maximize national benefit.