Latest news with #SaraMachado
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Not Even America's Richest Live as Long as Some of Europe's Poorest
New research shows a significant gap in mortality rates between the US and Europe, with even the wealthiest Americans more likely to meet an early death than the wealthiest Europeans – and in some cases, more likely than the poorest in some European countries too. While having more money was unsurprisingly associated with lower mortality risk (and therefore longer life) in both the US and Europe, according to the stats, the disparity in survival rates between the richest and poorest populations was much stronger in the US. These results could be explained by Europeans having greater access to healthcare and social welfare, and having stronger social structures than those in the United States, according to the international team of researchers behind the study. "The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from the systemic issues in the US contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet or environmental hazards," says health economist Irene Papanicolas, from Brown University in Rhode Island. The researchers crunched the numbers on health and retirement records for 73,838 adults, aged between 50 and 85, across the years 2010 to 2022. For both the US and Europe, the participants were split into four groups (quartiles), from the most to the least wealthy. The team looked at the chances of each group dying over the study period, which gives us a strong indication of the health and life expectancy of the participants. For each quartile, matching the US against Europe, Americans fared worse. Mortality rates varied across European regions, but in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, even the poorest groups were shown to be doing better than the richest Americans in terms of how many people died during the study period. Overall, across both regions, the wealthiest individuals were 40 percent less likely to die than the poorest. For all four wealth quartiles combined, rates of death were 40 percent lower in northern and western Europe than in the US. "We found that where you stand in your country's wealth distribution matters for your longevity, and where you stand in your country compared to where others stand in theirs matters, too," says health economist Sara Machado, from Brown University. "Fixing health outcomes is not just a challenge for the most vulnerable – even those in the top quartile of wealth are affected." The benefits that wealth has on health are well documented – a higher income gives you access to everything from better food to better living conditions to better healthcare – but these findings show the disparities between regions as well as between income levels. "If we want to improve health in the US, we need to better understand the underlying factors that contribute to these differences – particularly amongst similar socioeconomic groups – and why they translate to different health outcomes across nations," says Papanicolas. The research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here's Why Every Sip of Alcohol Increases Your Risk of Cancer 'Positive Solitude': Expert Reveals Why Alone Time Is Good For You Your Body Fat May Be Shaped by The Month You Were Conceived
Miami Herald
03-04-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Europeans are outliving Americans — even the wealthy, study finds. Why?
Americans are falling behind Europeans in lifespan, even among older and wealthier groups, a Brown University study found. The study compared age groups and income across the United States and 16 European countries, ultimately including 73,838 participants between the ages of 50 and 85, and was published April 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The participants were followed over a 10-year period, according to the study. 'The results revealed that people with more wealth tend to live longer than those with less wealth, especially in the U.S., where the gap between the rich and poor is much larger than in Europe,' researchers said in an April 2 news release from the Brown University School of Public Health. Wealth inequality has been on a steady rise for the last 60 years, according to the study, leading to richer Americans having better access to health care, earlier retirement and long-term care. This translates to poorer Americans dying sooner, and until recent years, this trend has been relatively similar across developed nations, according to the study. But in recent years, the life expectancy of Americans has been declining, even as some older adults become even wealthier than before, researchers said. The difference is while wealthy Europeans saw a significant increase in their lifespan congruent with their wealth, rich Americans did not see the same bump. 'The nation's wealthiest Americans have shorter lifespans on average than the wealthiest Europeans; in some cases, the wealthiest Americans have survival rates on par with the poorest Europeans in western parts of Europe such as Germany, France and the Netherlands,' researchers said in the release. The study found people in the highest bracket of wealth had a 40% lower death rate, or higher life expectancy, than those in the lowest wealth bracket, researchers said. Overall, central Europeans had a 40% lower death rate than Americans throughout the study, and participants from southern Europe and eastern Europe had 30% and 13% to 20% lower death rates, respectively. 'We found that where you stand in your country's wealth distribution matters for your longevity, and where you stand in your country compared to where others stand in theirs matters, too,' study author Sara Machado said in the release. 'Fixing health outcomes is not just a challenge for the most vulnerable — even those in the top quartile of wealth are affected.' So what is causing earlier deaths to become an American trait? 'There was more inequality between participants in the United States and participants in European regions in several characteristics; in the United States more than in Europe, wealthy persons were more likely than persons who are not wealthy to have ever married and less likely to be current smokers or to live in rural areas,' according to the study. The least wealthy in Europe were also more likely to have a college degree than those in the same wealth bracket in the United States, researchers said. 'These findings may indicate that the relationships between wealth and education, healthy behaviors and social networks are more pronounced in the United States than in Europe,' researchers said. As of October, the average life expectancy for all Americans is 77.5 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women outlive men 80.2 years to 74.8 years, on average, according to the CDC. The research team includes Machado, Ilias Kyriopoulos, E. John Orav and Irene Papanicolas.
