The effects of prenatal deaths on national life expectancy: case study U.S.A.
Introduction: It is a positive indicator that human life expectancies calculated from birth have been increasing. The current standards for counting life-years, however, assume social desirability and exclude all prenatal deaths. These assumptions mask low life-year deaths and obscure results of med...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidad Libre
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Interdisciplinary Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://revistas-unilibre.repositoriodigital.com/index.php/iJEPH/article/view/10669 |
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| Summary: | Introduction: It is a positive indicator that human life expectancies calculated from birth have been increasing. The current standards for counting life-years, however, assume social desirability and exclude all prenatal deaths. These assumptions mask low life-year deaths and obscure results of medical and environmental interventions, thus falsely indicating higher life expectancies.
Aim: The aim of this study is to quantify the life expectancy with and without social desirability.
Methods: This case study investigates 1930 to 2016 using CDC and World Bank data for the U.S. for the impact of social desirability on life expectancy.
Results: It is evident that published U.S. life expectancies are greatly exaggerated, and what would have been short-lived Americans are disproportionately labeled as socially undesirable and ignored when counting life years, thus presenting an overly optimistic view of U.S. health.
Conclusions: A comprehensive global investigation is needed, and a refinement of life expectancy calculations should be introduced, which does not bias results by only counting life expectancy from the time of live birth.
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| ISSN: | 2665-427X |