Americans spend more than a dozen years of their lives fighting disease

Americans suffer from diseases for an average of more than 12 years per person – and have a greater ‘disease burden’ than all other World Health Organization countries, a new study shows.

The study examined the health outcomes of 183 WHO member states and found that “the US stood out with the largest disparity in health and longevity and the largest non-communicable disease burden,” according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Health span-longevity in these terms means how long someone lives without illness or disease. And although people live longer, the study shows, these are not healthy years.

Globally, most people have been struggling with illness for 9.6 years; But “the US showed the largest gap between health and longevity, at 12.4 years, supported by an increase in non-communicable diseases.”

Australia and New Zealand trailed closely behind in health and longevity disparities at 12.1 years and 11.8 years respectively.

The study also found that women “showed a greater difference in health and longevity than men globally” – up to 2.4 years globally and 2.6 years in the US – which the study attributed to “much higher muscle – and skeletal burden per capita for women, in line with a higher global burden of musculoskeletal disease in women.”

Examples of musculoskeletal disorders, as defined by the WHO, include arthritis, tendonitis and osteoporosis.

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“Globally, the gap between health and longevity is a growing threat to healthy longevity,” said the study’s senior author Andre Terzic, professor of cardiovascular research at the Mayo Clinic. The Washington Post.

In the US, life expectancy in women has increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years, and in men from 74.1 to 76.3 years; The study found that global life expectancy is 72.5 years, but only 63.3 of those years were healthy years.

The study attributed “mental and substance use disorders, along with musculoskeletal disorders” to the disparity in the US. “These results underscore that around the world, while people are living longer,” researchers wrote, “they are living a greater number of years under the burden of disease. .”

These findings echo previous research into rising cancer rates, which estimated that a record-breaking two million people would be diagnosed with cancer by 2024 – largely driven by a rise in colorectal cancer rates.