US Life Expectancy Decline: Are We Reaching End of Longevity Gains?

US Life Expectancy Decline
US Life Expectancy Decline. Credit | Shutterstock

United States: According to a new study, humanity is seen to be hitting its upper limit of life expectancy.

As per the reports, progress made in medicine, the science of genes, and genetic upgrade – and larger populations attaining a centenarian status – are not leading to leaps and bounds of improvement in global expectancy, said the researchers who observed that countries with longest-lived citizens are experiencing declining longevity gains.

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According to S. Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois-Chicago researcher who was the lead author of the study published Monday by the journal Nature Aging, “We have to recognize there’s a limit,” and that’s why perhaps the researchers are reassessing assumptions regarding the timing of retirement of people and how much money they would require to out their lives, voanews.com reported.

Moreover, Mark Hayward, a University of Texas researcher who was not part of the study, called it “a valuable addition to the mortality literature.”

“We are reaching a plateau” in life expectancy, and there is always the chance of some breakthrough that could push survival to greater heights, “but we don’t have that now,” Hayward mentioned.

About Expectancy of life

Expectancy of life refers to the average duration of life that a child who has just been born in the year of reference may be expected to live, provided that the mortality rate that existed at birth and at the time of referral remains constant.

It is one of the world’s most important health measures, but it is also imperfect: It is a cross-sectional estimate that cannot factor in new killer diseases, disease cures, or other events that may cause death or prolong the lives of millions of people.

According to Olshansky, the US is not even ranked in the top forty. However, it is also included “because we live here,” and due to that reason, major estimates that life expectancy in the US might surge dramatically in this century.

Who lives the longest?

Females are still living longer than males, and life expectancy is still increasing – but only gradually, the study authors ascertained.

Timing of change: In 1990, the average length of change was about 2½ years per decade, voanews.com reported.

For the 2010s, it was 1½ years – but nearly zero in the US.

The United States is more problematic because it is most affected by a range of factors that cause people to die before they reach this age, for instance, drug overdoses, shootings, obesity, and lack of medical care access that may make it difficult for certain groups or classes of persons to receive quality medical care.

University of Southern California gerontology expert Eileen Crimmins said in an email that she thinks that the presented research is right on the button. So the study’s implication is that it’s only so long that most people get to live, and, Olshansky said, we have about reached it.

According to Eileen Crimmins, a University of Southern California gerontology expert who agrees with the study’s findings, “For me personally, the most important issue is the dismal and declining relative position of the United States.”