Life Expectancy Rises In U.S. For First Time In Four Years As Overdose Fatalities, Cancer Deaths Decline

The New York Times: American Life Expectancy Rises For First Time In Four Years
Life expectancy increased for the first time in four years in 2018, the federal government said Thursday, raising hopes that a benchmark of the nation’s health may finally be stabilizing after a rare and troubling decline that was driven by a surge in drug overdoses. Life expectancy is the most basic measure of the health of a society, and declines in developed countries are extremely unusual. But the United States experienced one from 2015 to 2017 as the opioid epidemic took its toll, worrying demographers who had not seen an outright decline since 1993, during the AIDS epidemic. (Tavernise and Goodnough, 1/30)

The Associated Press: For 1st Time In 4 Years, US Life Expectancy Rises — A Little
The latest calculation is for 2018 and factors in current death trends and other issues. On average, an infant born that year is expected to live about 78 years and 8 months, the CDC said. For males, it's about 76 years and 2 months; for females 81 years and 1 month. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, rising a few months nearly every year. But from 2014 to 2017, it fell slightly or held steady. That was blamed largely on surges in overdose deaths and suicides. (1/30)

The Washington Post: U.S. Life Expectancy Ticks Up As Drug Fatalities And Cancer Deaths Drop
Despite the encouraging elements of the CDC mortality report, the broader pattern for American health remains sobering. Life expectancy improved by the tiniest of increments, from 78.6 to 78.7 years. That figure remains lower than the peak in U.S. life expectancy, at 78.9 years, in 2014. It is also identical to life expectancy in 2010, and it appears unlikely that U.S. longevity will show any significant improvement over the entire decade of the 2010s. The United States is continuing to fall behind similarly wealthy countries — a phenomenon that experts refer to as the U.S. “health disadvantage.” (Achenbach, 1/30)

Politico: U.S. Life Expectancy Increases For First Time In 4 Years
And while deaths from heroin and prescription opioids are down, public health officials are concerned by rising death rate from the synthetic opioid fentanyl — which increased 10 percent since 2017 — as well as cocaine and methamphetamine. The number of deaths involving psychostimulants like methamphetamine increased 22 percent, while deaths from cocaine, which can be laced with fentanyl, killed more than 14,000 people last year, up 5 percent from 2017 and more than double the number in 2015.Congress and Trump administration officials have started to address the surge of methamphetamine and cocaine deaths, but some experts say efforts should focus more broadly on addiction and less on a specific substance. (Ehley and Goldberg, 1/30)

NPR: Amid Dip In Drug Overdose Rates, Life Expectancy Climbed Slightly In 2018
"I think these numbers suggest that some positive news is starting to come out of the many efforts to try to stem the tide on overdoses," says Kathryn McHugh, a psychologist at McClean Psychiatric Hospital and Harvard University. Those efforts include improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder and access to overdose rescue, she notes. But the new data "need to be interpreted with the utmost caution," she says. "I don't think we can interpret this as a win based on one year." (Chatterjee, 1/30)

CNN: US Life Expectancy Climbs For First Time In Four Years
Life expectancy in the United States edged up for the first time in four years as the number of fatal drug overdoses and six of the 10 leading causes of death declined, according to two new government reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. Life expectancy in the United States in 2018 was 78.7 years -- an increase of 0.1 year compared with life expectancy of 78.6 years in 2017, the NCHS reported in a study published Thursday. The 2018 estimate remains lower than the peak of 78.9 years in 2014. (Howard, 1/30)

NBC News: U.S. Life Expectancy Goes Up For The First Time Since 2014
Still, experts noted that the report, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, is not all good news: The U.S. also saw an increase in suicide and flu death rates in 2018. (Sullivan, 1/30)

ABC News: US Life Expectancy Rose In 2018 For 1st Time In 4 Years: Study
Provisional data from 2019, which isn't complete or finalized, paints a less rosy picture -- figures appear flat or increasing slightly from 2018. "We are not out of the woods yet," Beletsky noted. "This plateau still means we are at a very high level of overdose, while many communities are continuing to experience increases, especially among people of color. (Schumaker, 1/30)

NBC News: The U.S. Finally Has Better Maternal Mortality Data. Black Mothers Still Fare The Worst.
For the first time, the United States has standardized maternal mortality data from all 50 states — a first step toward identifying ways to reduce pregnancy-related deaths across the country, experts say. The data, released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, show that the national maternal mortality rate — deaths caused or aggravated by pregnancy — was an estimated 17.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018, when 658 women died. (Chuck, 1/30)

CNN: Nearly 700 Women In The United States Die Each Year Due To Pregnancy Or Childbirth
The number of women dying each year due to pregnancy or childbirth in the United States has remained steady and some women remain more at risk of death than others, according to a new government report. In 2018, the year with the most recent national data, a total of 658 women in the United States died while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy, according to new data published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics Reports released on Thursday. (Howard, 1/30)