Ava Noble: Life Expectancy Dropping in America

Summary: It's the first time since 1993 that life expectancy has dropped in America according to a study conducted in 2015. Even though the drop is only .01%, is this a trend for the future? Still, Americans can expect to live an average of 78.8 years. Women still live longer at 81.2 years vs men at 76.3 years. Both of these estimates were lower in 2015 and 2014. Look decent expectancy at 65 remained the same in 2015 and the average American can expect to live another 19.4 years once that age is reached. The average leading 10 causes of death remained the same in 2015 and almost 74% of all deaths were caused by those. Leading the list was heart disease followed by respiratory illness and stroke. The age-adjusted rate of death caused by cancer decreased in this 2015 study. The death rate for flu and pneumonia did not change by much. According to the Center of Disease Control, this slight blip may foreshadow what will be seen in the 2016 numbers.

Analysis: This article was published on CNN. CNN constantly maintains a great reputation for publishing truthful and meaningful information to the world. Before reading this article, I had not heard of this issue. It is a shame that people's lives are getting shorter. This article is very important because it is strongly impacting the future of our lives. Although we will not still be on this earth when it is severely dropped, it is important that we recognize what is happening around us. I hope people put in more effort of researching ways to prevent respiratory illness, stroke, cancer, pneumonia, and other death- causing illnesses. This article reminds me of taking AP Human Geography. We learned a lot about life expectancy in developing countries versus developed countries. Developing countries constantly has a low life expectancy rate, but the United States being a developed country, this surprises me. 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/us-life-expectancy-down/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool