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Food and Health Fact #96
Fact #96: Declining U.S. life expectancy since 2018
By Matthew Rees
Food and Health Fact #96: Declining U.S. life expectancy since 2018
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Since 2018, U.S. life expectancy has declined more than in any period since World War II. That’s according to researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Urban Institute. Their study, published in the BMJ last month, showed that the U.S. life expectancy decline since 2018 has been 8.5 times greater than the average in 16 peer countries. Covid-19 has been central to the reduced U.S. life expectancy, causing more than 600,000 deaths. Being overweight or obese has inflated Covid-19 risks: among those Americans testing positive for the virus and needing ventilation or hospitalization, or ultimately dying, 50.3 percent were overweight and 28.3 percent were obese, according to a CDC study.
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