Must-Read: Anne Case and Angus Deaton: Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century

Must-Read: Anne Case and Angus Deaton: Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century: “This paper documents a marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white…

…non-Hispanic men and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013… revers[ing] decades of progress in mortality… unique to the United States… confined to white non-Hispanics… at midlife… increasing death rates from drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis…. Those with less education saw the most marked increases. Rising midlife mortality rates of white non-Hispanics were paralleled by increases in midlife morbidity. Self-reported declines in health, mental health, and ability to conduct activities of daily living, and increases in chronic pain and inability to work, as well as clinically measured deteriorations in liver function, all point to growing distress in this population…