Despite our extraordinary wealth, the United States is at or near the bottom in health, relative to its peers, according to a recently released report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
While our length of life has improved, other countries gained life-years faster and our relative standing has fallen over the past half-century.
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Steven Woolf, chair of the IOM and professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, was "stunned" at the disadvantages facing the United States.
Making matters worse, we have a generation of children in worse health than their parents, meaning tomorrow's adults will have greater demand for healthcare and be less productive. As a result, the percentage of income devoted to healthcare will continue to rise.
Socioeconomic factors, such as a high poverty rate, large income inequality and a less-educated society, have contributed to this decline. Even relatively well-off Americans who are non-smokers and not overweight are receiving inferior healthcare services.
Compared with 16 peer nations, including Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Italy and Canada, the United States ranked last or near the bottom in nine categories: infant mortality and low birth weight, injuries and homicides, teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, prevalence of HIV and AIDS, drug-related deaths, obesity and diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease and disability.
This study was the first comprehensive assessment of multiple diseases, injuries and behaviors across the entire lifespan. The unhealthy behaviors include excessive calorie intake and high-risk activities that result in injury and death.
An important key to our economic progress is a change in these debilitating behaviors.
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