http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/life-expectancy-in-the-us-has-decreased-thats-troubling/431984/

Dive Insight:

Recent data show that a human’s lifespan is “fixed and subject to natural constraints” and that the limit of the “world’s oldest person” has not increased since the 1990s, when French woman Jeanne Calment died at age 122.

Still, the CDC’s findings paint a poor picture of the health of the U.S. population, as it shows an increase in “virtually every cause of death,” David Weir from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan was quoted in The Washington Post. In fact, the rate of deaths related to eight of the 10 leading causes of death increased from 2014 to 2015. Only one decreased. The rate for heart disease increased 0.9% while the rate for cancer decreased by 1.7% from 2014 to 2015.

For American males, life expectancy changed from 76.5 years in 2014 to 76.3 years in 2015 and American females saw a decrease from 81.3 years in 2014 to 81.2 years in 2015. Earlier this year, CDC released data that showed more Americans died in 2014 from heart disease than any other cause with 74% of American deaths attributed to the same 10 common causes of death.

Worldwide, a recent study found in 2010, nearly a third of adults had hypertension.

“We’re seeing the ramifications of the increase in obesity,” said Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in The Washington Post.