An Epidemic of Despair

"Quiet ‘Epidemic’ Has Killed Half a Million Middle-Aged White Americans"

"Despite advances in health care and quality of life, white middle-aged Americans have seen overall mortality rates increase over the past 15 years, representing an overlooked "epidemic" with deaths comparable to the number of Americans who have died of AIDS, according to new Princeton University research."

"The results are published in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from Anne Case, the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, and Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs and professor of economics and international affairs."

                                               
The items above are from "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century" Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton

from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

[Comment: This graph above is one of the more interesting, if not startling, ones I've seen this year]

As a wine collector for, let's say, 30 years, I find the previous chart disturbing. So, here is a little more...

Here is a little more from the WWS abstract, bold is my addition:

Although death rates related to drugs, alcohol and suicides have risen for middle-aged whites at all education levels, the largest increases are seen among those with the least education, the researchers found. For those with a high school degree or less, deaths caused by drug and alcohol poisoning rose fourfold; suicides rose by 81 percent; and deaths caused by liver disease and cirrhosis rose by 50 percent.

...

While this turnaround in mortality is only partly understood, the research team cites the increased availability of opioids in the late '90s as a potential cause, with some substitution toward heroin as opioid prescription became more carefully monitored and the quality and availability of heroin rose.

...

The authors note that financial stress may also play a role. Median household incomes of white non-Hispanics began falling in the late 1990s, and the wage stagnation that began with the economic slowdown of the 1970s continues to hit especially hard those with a high school or less education. Coupled with the changing nature of the financial risk Americans face when saving for retirement as well as the recent financial crisis, economic insecurity may weigh heavily on U.S. workers, and take a toll on their health and health-related behaviors.

 ...

But if what is happening is an epidemic of despair, that people on the bottom of the economic heap are being increasingly left out as inequality expands, then what we are seeing is just one more terrible consequence of slow growth and growing inequality."