The death rate for middle aged white Americans has been rising while death rates for other races is declining and no one seems to really know why.
The death rate for middle-aged White Americans has been on the rise and no one is really certain as to why. Two distinguished Princeton University economics professors wrote an extensive paper on mortality that won them a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015. They are the husband and wife team of Dr. Angus Deaton and Dr. Anne Case. Even they seem to be at a loss concerning all of the recent data.
While death rates continue to climb for middle-aged White Americans, they have been continuing to fall for middle-aged Black and Latino Americans, according to the New York Times. The death rate for middle-aged White Americans had always been falling until the last several years when a sharp and ominous spike has been seen. The professors have determined that the reason for the excess deaths among the Whites is due to alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide. Also, death from these exact causes has been declining overall in the Black and Latino middle-aged population.
Blacks and Latino middle-aged Americans always were far ahead of White Americans with regard to cirrhosis and death from drug addition. Now, it is the exact opposite, and the suicide rate for White middle-aged Americans is four times that of Blacks.
Speculation abounds. Are White middle-aged Americans killing themselves because of their economic conditions? The professors say perhaps but why aren’t the same things seen in other First World countries? One place researchers have been looking is certain conditions that seem to be afflicting middle-aged White’s more these days.
Middle-aged Whites continue to report that they suffer from bad health. They complain of constant back, neck and face pain that is chronic and many more suffer from depression, mental illness and anxiety than before. Most state that they can’t climb stairs or even walk a couple of city blocks. Many more can’t work, have trouble socializing, and even shopping, or being in public places for too long.
The professors speculate that this all may have begun back in the 1990’s when pain management was declared to be the new panacea. Prescription drugs became plentiful and were supplied far more often to White patients than to Latino or Black patients. They speculate a chicken and egg scenario. Has the drug pushing made them more attuned to pain real or imagined or does the over prescribing of drugs just make all of the afflictions worse?
