Latest news with #lifeexpectancy
CBS News
a day ago
- Health
- CBS News
Northwestern study finds California life expectancy yet to recover since COVID-19
A new study from Northwestern University found that life expectancy in California has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, data that could indicate similar national trends. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that overdoses and cardiovascular diseases were the leading causes of life expectancy loss in California. COVID-19 also remained a contributing factor. Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern professor and lead researcher of the study, and his team analyzed California data because it is comprehensive and typically published ahead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national data. The researchers used California's Comprehensive Death Files and obtained population counts for calculating mortality rates from the American Community Survey. "California is the biggest state [by population], so it gives us an idea of trends," he said. Life expectancy is the estimated lifespan of a human based on prevailing age specific mortality rates, according to Northwestern University. "2020 was bad, 2021 was even worse, and then we didn't see a rebound, or even overshooting in life expectancy the next year. We saw continued deficit in life expectancy compared to 2019," Schwandt said. Schwandt compared it to the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which multiple studies show that life expectancy in the United States rebounded after one to two years, unlike COVID-19, which continues to impact life expectancy over five years later. The study found that Californians' life expectancy dropped nearly a year from 81.4 to 80.5 by 2024. While the life expectancy gap between income groups returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 after widening during 2020–2023, disparities between racial groups grew even larger. In 2024, Black people lived on average six and a half years less than white people in California. Black Californians experienced a slower but more prolonged decline in life expectancy: losing four years by 2021 due to COVID deaths, but the gap further widened due to fentanyl overdoses. Hispanic Californians had the most severe single-year life expectancy drop of five years in 2021 due to COVID-19. Still, overdoses and cardiovascular disease continue to reduce their life expectancy by more than a year. Overdoses impacted poor communities the hardest, while cardiovascular disease was the primary cause for the drop in life expectancy for wealthier and white people. "The fentanyl crisis particularly took off in 2020 and continues to be a problem," Schwandt said. Other research studies show a strong correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl epidemic. A study published in the National Library of Medicine calls the pandemic an "important epoch in the opioid epidemic timeline." Societal disruptions, economic stress, and limited access to treatment increased the risk of overdoses, according to the study. Schwandt also said that overprescribing opioids is a part of the larger problem. In 2024, 87% of opioid overdose deaths in Cook County involved fentanyl. African Americans make up 53% of those total overdose deaths. A Penn State study found that by the start of the pandemic, a Black person over the age of 55 in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota was 5 times more likely to die of a drug overdose than a white person of the same age. "The good news is that in 2024, overdose deaths did decline for the first time," Scwandt said. "But because they increase so dramatically over the years, we are still in a territory that is unacceptable." Provisional data from the CDC found a nearly 24% decline in US drug overdose deaths. Schwandt said that increased deaths from cardiovascular disease could be potentially linked to obesity and Long COVID. "I think that's a really interesting hypothesis that we should explore more," he said. "Maybe in richer areas, people have more access to COVID treatment and survive, have a higher burden of Long COVID, which then could lead to higher cardiovascular mortality," Schwandt said. Long COVID is an all-encompassing name for the long-term symptoms and health effects a person can experience after contracting COVID-19, regardless of the severity of the case. Long COVID is a disorder that can impact almost all parts of the body, including the heart, brain, immune system, and gastrointestinal system. A 2024 study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that "undeniably, the Long COVID syndrome has a multifaceted interplay with the cardiovascular system." The researchers looked at 78 different studies to compile different cardiovascular manifestations of Long COVID and found that cardiac symptoms are the third most common clinical manifestation of the disease. Schwandt examines trends in life expectancy and compares the data in the U.S. to that of other developed countries to see how the U.S. can increase its life expectancy. "Countries like Spain, that have lower incomes, and less technology, and they're healthier and live longer [than the US]," he said. He looks at different causes, areas, and incomes throughout the U.S. and other developed countries to determine who is living the longest and why. Schwandt wants to expand the study once the U.S. numbers are available to researchers. "I'd like to analyze the data in rich and poor populations in other developed countries and compare them to the U.S. experience," he said. "How is the world recovering, and is there anything we can learn from that?"
France 24
2 days ago
- Business
- France 24
South Korea sees record birth rate growth for Jan-May
The country has one of the world's longest life expectancies and lowest birth rates -- a combination that presents a looming demographic challenge. Seoul has poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability. "The number of newborns for the January–May period stood at 106,048, a 6.9 percent increase, the highest growth rate since such data collection began in 1981," said Kang hyun-young from Statistics Korea. The surge follows South Korea's first annual increase in the number of births in more than a decade, driven by a rise in marriages. In 2024, the number of newborns rose by 8,300, or 3.6 percent, to 238,300 from the previous year. April in particular saw a spike, with year-on-year growth reaching 8.7 percent and the number of births totalling 20,717 that month. The latest figure marks a sharp turnaround from early 2024, when the number of births for the January–May period dropped by 2.7 percent from the previous year. The fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, for May stood at 0.75. The country needs a fertility rate of 2.1 children in order to maintain the country's population of 51 million. At current rates, the population will nearly halve to 26.8 million by 2100, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. Marriage correlation The increase is attributable "to a rise in the number of women in their early 30s, leading to an overall increase in marriages", Kang told AFP. "In South Korea, there is a strong correlation between marriage and childbirth, which has driven the increase in births during the first five months," she added. In 2024, the country saw a 14.8 percent on-year increase in the number of marriages, with more than 220,000 couples tying the knot. Many government benefits designed to support child-rearing do not cover parents who are not legally married. Analysts say there are multiple reasons for the low birth rate, from high child-rearing costs and property prices to a notoriously competitive society that makes well-paid jobs difficult to secure. The double burden for working mothers of managing the brunt of household chores and childcare while also maintaining their careers is another key factor, they say. In a bid to reverse the trend, the South Korean government offers cash subsidies, babysitting services, and support for infertility treatment. Neighbouring Japan is grappling with the same issue -- it has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco, and the country's relatively strict immigration rules mean it faces growing labour shortages.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Health
- Bloomberg
How Can We Live Longer?
Live on Bloomberg TV CC-Transcript 00:00We spend so much time talking about this and I wonder what's making you invest in it now? Why are we all so consumed with our own mortality? Well, as people all get older, they generally want to live longer. Most people do. I think it's all it's been going on for a millennium. But now we have the ability with medications and pharmaceutical products and lifestyle changes to actually affect how long we live. So in the year, let's say 400,000 years ago, when humans were coming out of caves as Homo sapiens, the life expectancy was 20. Today, in the United States, the life expectancy is roughly 77. But somebody born today from a good zip code, good ethnicity can probably live to 85 to 90. But people today who are already in their 56 years and seventies, what they want to do is live longer. And it's possible now because of drugs, more knowledge about weight, more knowledge about pharmaceuticals, more knowledge about so many different lifestyle changes that one could adopt that you can live longer. And so this series is about how people can affect the time that they spend on the face of the earth. So that's what it's all about. We selected that clip on GLP one, which has been such a fascinating story over the past couple of years. David A cure all. If you ask certain people, everything from fatty liver to diabetes to obesity to sleep apnea. Have we ever seen something like this that's been approved for so many things? And to what extent does this advance our conversation about advancing our age? Well, we all remember when school that penicillin was discovered as an accident and we later learned that penicillin turned out to be one of the great miracle drugs of all time and saved many, many lives, of course, around the world and still does. GLP one drugs were originally designed to deal with diabetes and the effects of diabetes. But it turns out that they have more significant effects in just dealing with diabetes. They can also make you lose a fair amount of weight, you know, in a way that's responsible. But also they can probably extend your life. And now more and more research is being done to see that the show that GLP one drugs can probably save you many, many years on the face of the earth. You can live longer. And so many, many doctors are now beginning to prescribe it not just for obesity but for other related things that people can can deal with. You're no stranger to politics, of course, David Rubenstein. And I'm wondering if it's possible in this political climate we're in to talk about health in an era when Donald Trump is talking about Marjo and RFK jr is questioning certain sciences. If it's possible to talk about our health without bumping into politics. Well, in Washington, D.C., everything revolves around politics to some extent. But yeah, generally the most important thing I think we should recognize is that the purpose of government is to promote the general welfare. That's what it says in our Constitution and what promotes the general welfare better than helping people to live longer and living healthier. And that's what health is all about. We have the finest medications in the United States, the finest health care in the United States. We just to make sure that people are get access to it. And that's what the debate often is about in Washington. Who's going to get access to the health care and how much are they going to pay for it? But what I'm trying to do with this series is just make be sure people realize that it is possible through changing your lifestyle. They're taking some medications you can live longer than you otherwise would live. And that's something that generally people all over the world want to do more than anything else. People want to have a happy life, a healthy life and a longer life. Yeah, well, it's pretty remarkable how simple that is. And you wonder what happens to GLP one's what else they could be approved for if there's an oral version or so forth. But, David, there's a lot of debate in Washington right now about a number of things, including pharmaceuticals, including whether they should be tariffs. As I said at the beginning of our conversation here, and I have to ask you about the way the market is looking at all of this, because you're David Rubenstein, when you see the markets continuing to see new highs in the face of such uncertainty as we've been told. What do you make of this moment, the psychology in the markets, knowing that August 1st is less than two weeks away? Is this market more sophisticated, a better sense of what's real and what's noise than the political class in Washington? Well, the market generally is a pretty good indicator what people are thinking. As a general rule of thumb. I think most CEOs and most large companies today do not know what the impact of tariffs is going to be going to be. And so it really hasn't factored in that much yet. Most companies, many of the companies that my own firm has under our control don't yet see the need to raise prices to deal with the tariffs because the tariffs aren't yet solidified in terms of what they're going to be. But I think most people in the market generally think that tariffs will be tolerable and probably some price is going to be passed along and maybe some others can't. But I don't think most people feel that the tariffs are now a barrier to continued economic growth. That's fascinating. How about the idea of Donald Trump as chairman of the board, having seen him make moves on specific companies? We'll take a look at what he said about Tim Cook, for instance, at Apple. It's time to move your manufacturing here, and I need you to do it by this date. David is the co-founder of Carlisle. How should board members or people in the C-suite prepare for that type of environment? Well, there is a manufacturing deficit now in the United States. There's no doubt that manufacturing has moved offshore over the last 20 to 30 years because it's very efficient to manufacture things at lower prices offshore. There's no doubt that many CEOs are now beginning to onshore some manufacturing. But we have to be realistic about it. It takes many, many years to build the manufacturing facilities, the United States. So it may be some time before much manufacture is going to come back here. But I suspect some companies are going to manufacture some things in the United States they otherwise would not. But some are going to give lip service to it and some are not really going to pay that much attention to it. In the end, I suspect there will be more manufacturing in the United States three or four years from now than there is today, but a lot less than there was 20 or 30 years ago. For YouLive TV
ABC News
5 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Lack of health care looms large in minds of ageing rural Australians
Whenever Kerry and Kathy MacDonald head to the main street of their home town in outback Queensland, it is rarely a quick trip. The Longreach locals always spot a familiar face or two and stop for a chat. "I think we live in the best town in the country. We know all the people, there's plenty to do," Mrs MacDonald said. It is that social connection the couple was desperate to keep when Mr MacDonald's health began to decline several years ago. Since 2020, the 80-year-old, who has a heart condition, has made multiple trips to see specialists in Brisbane. It is a 2,400-kilometre round trip, which is no easy task for the couple. "As you get older, each trip is worse," Mrs MacDonald said. "It takes us longer. We now have to stop three times instead of driving straight through." Mr MacDonald was offered a spot in a three-year trial in Brisbane for a treatment that could help prolong his life. Mrs MacDonald said their eldest son had offered them a place to stay in Brisbane. In the end, they stayed put. "It would have created so much upheaval to us that I feel it would have had a more detrimental effect on Kerry's health and probably mine," Mrs MacDonald said. Across rural Queensland, where adequate health services are lacking, many residents face similar heartache when forced to travel long distances or permanently leave communities they are connected to. Data shows your postcode is directly linked to life expectancy. The most recent figures from Queensland Health show a sliding scale of mortality rates, with 75.2 years the median age of death in very remote areas, compared to 81.7 years in major cities. People in the most disadvantaged areas are also likely to die three years earlier than those in higher socio-economic areas. The leading cause of death is coronary heart disease, which is largely preventable, followed by dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. About 17 per cent of the Queensland population is aged 65 or older, according to state government figures. Over the next five weeks, the ABC will explore the challenges Queenslanders face as they age, particularly while living outside of major centres. We will also share stories of people who are challenging the limitations of their postcodes, to show it is possible to age well wherever you live. Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) president Danielle Allan said health services in rural and remote communities were often stretched to the limit. "Some of our communities are waiting five to six weeks before they even see their general practitioner," Dr Allan said. Dr Allan said cost-of-living pressures in recent years had forced more people to move to regional areas, which had compounded the issue. "This year we've had an increase in the number of junior doctors electing to train particularly in rural general practice, so that's a really good sign," she said. "But it's three to five years before those boots hit the ground and in that time you've got increasing population, increasing demand. "So you're almost like the rat on the wheel — you're constantly moving but not necessarily feeling like you're achieving much." The RDAQ has been pushing for increased funding for health care. "Thirty-eight per cent of the Queensland population actually live in rural and remote areas, so when you think about that, do we actually spend 38 per cent of the health budget in those same areas?" Dr Allan said. "We certainly don't have 38 per cent of the health workforce. Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia care finder service manager Terri-Ann Dwyer said isolation was one of the biggest challenges affecting older Queenslanders and their ability to age well. "We're finding people are having to move away to access health services and other support," she said. "That has grief, loss and trauma associated with it … especially if it's something that is forced upon somebody." Ms Dwyer said the isolation was more keenly felt by those no longer able to drive. "Access to public transport is really tough in regional areas and often non-existent in rural and very remote areas," she said. Ms Dwyer said there was "massive demand" and "huge waiting lists" for residential aged care spots, but older Queenslanders should always ask for help. "You've worked really hard all your life, you've contributed to our communities in so many valuable ways," she said. "It is our time now to ensure that we provide the most appropriate services and supports so you can live the rest of your life in the way that works for you the best." The MacDonalds plan to stay in their own home for as long as possible, with the help of local medical services and technology. Mr MacDonald now wears a special watch that alerts his wife if he has had a fall. "I get a call within 10 seconds, and then if I don't answer it within 10 or 20 seconds it goes straight to the ambulance," Mrs MacDonald said. "We have doctors that look after us very well. If we need specialist treatment we're sent away, [but] we feel we don't miss out too much." This story is part of a series exploring how regional Queenslanders are ageing well outside the capital city.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
Supporting Older Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Growing Imperative For Leaders
Karen Fonseth is Chief Executive Officer of DASCH Inc., one of Canada's largest nonprofit organizations. People with intellectual disabilities, such as those with Down syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, have historically had shorter life expectancies than the general population, but data from a Population Reference Bureau study found that the gap is shrinking. Thanks to improved medical care and early diagnoses, the study shows that between 2008 and 2017, the lifespan gap between adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those without narrowed by about two years. Because of this amazing shift in life expectancy, the number of adults with intellectual disabilities is rising. Now, anyone who lives a longer life is more susceptible to common aging issues like dementia, mobility loss, chronic illness and social isolation. But for folks with intellectual disability, that complexity can multiply. A 2022 Canadian survey reported that more than 27% of adults have a disability, and adults aged 50 to 64 with intellectual disabilities have higher rates of conditions like sarcopenia and low bone density. That means early intervention and aging‑friendly planning cannot wait. Why Leaders Must Act Now The stakes are high for organizations supporting this population. When parents age or pass away, the absence of a formal care plan can trigger crisis placements in ill‑prepared nursing homes or hospitals. Recruitment struggles and staff burnout intensify without sufficient training to reinforce continuity. Leaders must challenge the disability support sector to redesign models so they are aging‑ready and rooted in both intellectual disability expertise and geriatric best practices. To meet this need, DASCH partners with the National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices (NTG). Their training framework, adopted across Canada and the U.S., focuses on dementia recognition, consistent staffing strategies and family engagement. Staff are trained to understand nonverbal cues, manage challenging behaviors and provide consistent care. On average, a person with an intellectual disability will interact with 500 to 600 different support staff throughout their life—a level of churn that deeply erodes trust and continuity. Without an intentional focus on aging and well-trained support staff, adults with intellectual disabilities risk being overlooked at the very moment they need the most support. What Disability Support Leaders Can Do Today 1. Invest in dementia‑specific training. Partner with trusted experts like NTG to equip staff and families with early detection and response skills. 2. Prioritize staff retention and consistency. Spend time and attention on onboarding and training. Hold refresher sessions at regular intervals. 3. Create integrated adult‑day and residential programs. Promoting social connection and services like nutrition, therapy, and literacy enhances quality of life and may reduce chronic illness progression. 4. Plan ahead with families. Encourage families to engage early in estate and guardianship planning. Have a clear housing strategy to avoid crisis transitions. 5. Advocate for funding that values longevity. Support public policy that recognizes the higher needs of aging adults with intellectual disabilities and that reimburses care aligned with best practices. Dignity Through Every Stage Of Life The shift in conversation is unmistakable. Two decades ago, dementia among people with intellectual disabilities was dismissed as part of their condition. Not anymore. A growing body of research and evolving support models prove informed support raises quality of life and safeguards dignity. Leaders in the disability support sector have an obligation to evolve from reactive crisis interventions to proactive, full-lifespan support, enabling people to age in place. At DASCH, we believe the people we serve deserve nothing less than care that honors their whole life story. We owe it to them and their families to build systems rooted in dignity, respect and continuity. Forbes Nonprofit Council is an invitation-only organization for chief executives in successful nonprofit organizations. Do I qualify?
