Report finds that Americans are Living Longer
Dec. 4, 2000 -- We are living longer, stronger lives, according to data on U.S. health trends over the past 100 years.
According to the new data in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, life expectancy increased by 56% -- or 27 years -- during the 20th century. In the beginning part of the century, average Americans lived almost 50 years, while we are now living to the ripe old age of 77, on average.
"When you look at the improvements in health over the 20th century, they have been dramatic and in some instances, spectacular," study author Donna M. Strobino, PhD, tells WebMD. She's a professor in the department of population and family health sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore.
For children older than one, the death rate has declined by leaps and bounds. Deaths in this age group from infectious disease such as the flu, pneumonia, and diarrhea-related illnesses declined from 62% to 2%, but the number of children who died from accidents increased from 6% in 1900 to 44% in 1998.
Strobino credits the improvements to major public health initiatives, a rising standard of living, as well as to medical advances.
"I would give us an 'A' for technology," she says, referring to advances in medical technology such as breast screening mammography, infertility treatments, and a better understanding of the genes that cause different diseases. But now the nation must determine how to best use the technology, she adds.
Other challenges still remain, she says. For example, "we have a disparity between black and white babies for the entire century and the challenge is for public health experts and medical personnel to improve [death rates] for minority infants," she says.
In the study, the overall infant death rate also fell 93% from 1915 to 1996. But it's still higher among black infants than white infants, the data show.
Yvonne Thornton, MD, PhD, a senior perinatologist at St. Luke's Roosevelt in New York, says the challenges are mostly about equality.
"There have been enormous strides in [infant death rates], but the benefit has only been enjoyed by a portion of the population -- those who are wealthy and those who have access to health care," says Thornton.
A Hundred Years of Health Progress -- How Did the U.S. Do?
Dec. 4, 2000 -- We are living longer, stronger lives, according to data on U.S. health trends over the past 100 years.
According to the new data in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, life expectancy increased by 56% -- or 27 years -- during the 20th century. In the beginning part of the century, average Americans lived almost 50 years, while we are now living to the ripe old age of 77, on average.
"When you look at the improvements in health over the 20th century, they have been dramatic and in some instances, spectacular," study author Donna M. Strobino, PhD, tells WebMD. She's a professor in the department of population and family health sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore.
For children older than one, the death rate has declined by leaps and bounds. Deaths in this age group from infectious disease such as the flu, pneumonia, and diarrhea-related illnesses declined from 62% to 2%, but the number of children who died from accidents increased from 6% in 1900 to 44% in 1998.
Strobino credits the improvements to major public health initiatives, a rising standard of living, as well as to medical advances.
"I would give us an 'A' for technology," she says, referring to advances in medical technology such as breast screening mammography, infertility treatments, and a better understanding of the genes that cause different diseases. But now the nation must determine how to best use the technology, she adds.
Other challenges still remain, she says. For example, "we have a disparity between black and white babies for the entire century and the challenge is for public health experts and medical personnel to improve [death rates] for minority infants," she says.
In the study, the overall infant death rate also fell 93% from 1915 to 1996. But it's still higher among black infants than white infants, the data show.
Yvonne Thornton, MD, PhD, a senior perinatologist at St. Luke's Roosevelt in New York, says the challenges are mostly about equality.
"There have been enormous strides in [infant death rates], but the benefit has only been enjoyed by a portion of the population -- those who are wealthy and those who have access to health care," says Thornton.