Question

1) Describe worldwide differences in longevity. What are the leading reasons for 30+ year difference between countries with the longest and shortest average lifespans?

2) What lifestyle factors are associated with health and longevity? Explain why socio-economic status (SES) is related to health outcomes and longevity.

Answer 1

• 2. Longevity has been increasing over the past century thanks to medical advances and lifestyle improvements. Not only has the average life expectancy increased since 1900, but a larger number of people are living to older ages, driven in part by a steep decline in the high infant mortality rate that characterized the early 1900s.
• Life expectancy once a person reaches age 65 is now about to 84 years of age in the United States and about 86 in Japan.
• The three lifestyle behaviours linked with a longer, healthier life are not extreme nor complicated: don't smoke, keep your weight within a healthy range and your booze intake in check.
• Today, the major lifestyle factor that affects mortality is obesity. Nearly 5 percent of adults are considered extremely obese.Historically, lifestyle factors that affect mortality include an unhealthy diet, inadequate exercise, tobacco use, excessive use of alcohol, risky behaviors, food safety, work place safety and motor vehicle safety.
• As socio-economic status decreases, so does life expectancy. Among other things, socio-economic status can affect a person’s ability to access adequate medical care and their participation in healthier lifestyle habits like exercising more, smoking less and maintaining a healthy weight.
• Low socioeconomic status is linked to significant reductions in life expectancy and should be considered a major risk factor for ill health and early death in national and global health policies.
• Socioeconomic status is important because it is a summary measure of lifetime exposures to hazardous circumstances and behaviours, that goes beyond the risk factors for non-communicable diseases that policies usually address.
• People who are poor and powerless have worse health and longevity than those with money, power, and prestige. This situation was true during the times when infectious diseases were major killers and there was poor sanitation and overcrowding.
• It is equally true today when infectious diseases and crowding are no longer a threat in the US, but instead cancers and heart disease are the major causes of morbidity and mortality.
• People with lower SES continue to be the group that experiences the highest rates of morbidity and age-adjusted mortality from these more modern diseases, stimulated by risk factors such as poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and smoking that are more common in lower SES groups .
• Due to time limit,remaining questions can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation