Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Troll_Bait]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_he_me/life_expectancy_8

[Alias]

Culprit: Lack of Health Care

[sundubuman]

There are also regional variations among the 50 states, as well as very strong racial differentiations in life expectancy.

Hawaii and Minnesota have the longest (around 80 years- very Asian and white state respectively), whereas Mississippi and Louisiana have the lowest (around 74 on average). LA and MS have the highest percentage of blacks, who tend to have much higher rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease, as well as violence and AIDS.

[safeblad]

[Hater Depot]

One reason that we have a relatively poor infant mortality rate is the very high numer of babies born prematurely that we make great efforts to save. Poorer countries can't afford to try to save babies with such a low chance of making it and that naturally affects the statistics, though I assume the rankings in the OP are life expectancy after the age of 5.

[charlieDD]

Another big factor is immigration. The US takes in millions of people each year, . . . more illegal than legal . . . from all parts of the world. Many, if not most, come from places where they did not receive good health care early in their lives and thus are predisposed against longevity.

I've read that if you isolate ethnic and socio-economic groups in America, you find that white Americans as a group would rank in the top five in terms of life expectancy if they were a nation unto themselves.

If Japan were to count in their figures the life expectancy of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who live in Japan pretty much as permanent residents, we would see its ranking drop; not as significantly as in the U.S. though because they just don't have as many migrant workers and they screen the ones who do come to work in their country, unlike America where they just walk across the border in whatever condition they happen to be in.

[bucheon bum]

[ursus_rex]

Focusing on the rich white population (or its equivalent) can be done in most countries. Similarly, in Canada, if the Native population was removed from the equation, the age would likely go up.

But I think discounting/counting different sectors of the population to jump up the years of life is just cherry-picking. After all, those people are a part of the population and do reflect, to some degree, the state of health of the various nations.

[ursus_rex]

Citing immigration as a cause doesn't make sense. Canada, for one, has a similarly high rate of immigration to the US, yet has a higher ranking. It could be, though, because of differing admission policies and illegals from Mexico, that the effects and nature of immigration might differ between the two, but I'm not certain if this is the case.

[ursus_rex]

Obesity may be a reason, but again, citing Canada as an example, the lifestyle and eating habits, in my opinion, are similar to those of the US yet it has a much higher ranking.