FRIDAY, Nov. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — There are considerable differences in life expectancy among different groups in the U.S. population, according to a study published online Nov. 21 in The Lancet.

Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Ph.D., of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues divided the U.S. population into 10 groups (eight from a previous study plus two additional groups including the Latin American population). ) and examined trends in life expectancy from 2000 to 2021 for these groups.

Throughout the study period, researchers observed large disparities in life expectancy among the “10 Americas,” which widened over time, particularly during the first two years of the COVID pandemic. -19. The gap between the Americas with the lowest and highest life expectancy was 12.6 years in 2000 and increased to 13.9 years in 2010, 15.8 years in 2019, 18.9 years in 2020 and 20.4 years in 2021. Trends in life expectancy over time varied by group. , leading to changes in the order of the groups over the period. The only group to experience a substantial decline in life expectancy between 2000 and 2019 was America 10 (American Indian and Alaska Native individuals in the West), which experienced the largest declines between 2019 and 2021 Americas 6, 7, and 9 (the three Black Americas) experienced a relatively large increase in life expectancy before 2020, and all of them. three had a life expectancy higher than America’s 10th in 2006.

“In a country blessed with the wealth and resources of the United States, it is intolerable that so many people live in conditions and with health outcomes similar to those in an entirely different country,” write the authors.

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