Title.- Mortality divergences in life expectancy in the second half of life between US and other high-income countries: the role of cardiovascular mortality in widening of the mortality gap.

Abstract.- Compared to other high-income countries, the United States underperforms in terms of life expectancy. One key driver of this differential is cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, a cause of which the US has had worse trends since around 2008. The differential in CVD mortality has been previously described, however, its contribution to the widening US life expectancy lag relative to other high-income countries is unknown. Furthermore, the role of age-specific mortality is unclear in those differentials. In this paper, we measured the contribution of CVD mortality to the post-2010 life expectancy divergence between the US and other ten high-income countries. Using life table methods in WHO mortality data by cause, we computed life expectancy at age 50 (LE50) by sex and by two counterfactual scenarios to establish the contribution of CVD mortality in the LE50 gap between 2008 and 2019. The first in a cause-deleted approach, removing CVD deaths, and the second by replacing the age-specific CVD mortality rates of the HICs with the corresponding US CVD mortality rates. Results suggest that either removing or replacing CVD mortality resulted in narrowing the overall LE50 gap between the US and the high-income countries in 2008 and 2019, but not enough to close it entirely. CVD mortality was a positive contributor to increases in LE50 within the US for the 2008-2019 period. Still, since its rate of decline was not steep enough, it also became one of the culprits of the enlargement of the LE50 gap with other countries (and in some cases, it was the main driver of the enlargement).

Presencial: Sala Àngels Torrents, CED

Virtual: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7905645674
Codi: 1984