[ti:Life Expectancy Declines in the United States] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Life expectancy rates in the United States have been increasing for most of the past 60 years. [00:08.85]But a new study has confirmed changes. [00:12.65]It found that U.S. life expectancy rates decreased for three years in a row after 2014. [00:23.20]The main cause appears to be higher rates of death among middle-aged Americans. [00:31.36]A report on the study appeared last week in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. [00:42.04]The report notes that, among working-age Americans, death rates for all causes increased between 2010 and 2017. [00:54.12]The main reasons were drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and organ system diseases, such as diabetes. [01:07.60]Doctor Steven Woolf helped to prepare the report. [01:11.92]He is director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. [01:21.80]Woolf said, "There has been an increase in death rates among working age Americans. [01:28.24]This is an emergent crisis. [01:31.15]And it is a uniquely American problem since it is not seen in other countries. [01:39.00]Something about life in America is responsible." [01:45.32]The rising rates of midlife mortality hit some areas of the country harder than others, the report said. [01:54.48]Increases were highest in northern New England and the Ohio Valley. [02:01.72]Economic hardship and the resulting despair, a sense of hopelessness, may be to blame, Woolf said. [02:11.16]"While it's a little difficult to place the blame on despair directly, [02:15.96]the living conditions causing despair are leading to other problems," he explained. [02:23.12]"For example, if you live in an economically distressed community where income is flat [02:30.28]and it's hard to find jobs, that can lead to chronic stress, which is harmful to health." [02:39.24]Woolf noted that other high income countries do not have the problem [02:43.82]of increasing mortality rates in middle age. [02:48.00]He added this might be because "in other countries [02:51.61]there are more support systems for people who fall on hard times. [02:57.36]In America, families are left to their own devices to try to get by." [03:04.68]Information from the study came from the National Center for Health Statistics [03:10.36]and the U.S. Mortality Database for 1959 to 2017. [03:19.12]The researchers also examined medical literature [03:23.14]for studies of U.S. life expectancy and mortality rates. [03:30.08]Based on the researchers' findings, life expectancy increased by almost 10 years, [03:36.82]from 69.9 to 78.9 years, during that period. [03:44.36]But they found that rates had been falling since 2014. [03:51.04]"The current problems we are seeing are decades in the making," Woolf said. [03:56.60]"We used to have the highest life expectancy in the world. [04:02.40]The pace at which life expectancy was increasing in the U.S. [04:07.34]started to fall off relative to other countries in the (19)80s." [04:13.72]Dr. John Rowe is a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. [04:23.52]The new findings provide evidence of some worrying trends. [04:27.98]"It is depressing," he said, "but I don't think it's much of a surprise." [04:35.32]He noted the problem of opioids in the United States, [04:39.37]saying that "250,000 Americans have overdosed and died" after taking the drugs. [04:49.00]What is unusual is that the decrease in life expectancy is not the same for all age groups. [04:57.68]"This is really evidence that mortality rates are increasing only in middle age [05:03.84]while they're continuing to decline in children, adolescents and people over 65," he said. [05:13.16]I'm Anna Matteo. [05:14.57]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM