Recent headlines in longevity news have made us all aware that Australians were living longer than the rest of us, especially those of us who are American. However, new research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology is challenging the findings of the previous research on Aussie longevity.
Challenging previous research
The new research from The Australian National University (ANU) suggests that Aussies under the age of 50 years old are experiencing stagnating life expectancy while older Aussie cohorts above the age of 50 years old, especially men, are living longer.
Comparing peer high-income countries
Much like the other studies, this work examined the longevity trends and patterns in 6 English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and then compared them with other peer high-income countries. According to the researchers, their results show striking similarities between the English-speaking countries in terms of adverse outcomes for the under-fifty adult age groups.
Younger Aussie cohorts struggling
This study revealed that younger Aussie cohorts are struggling when it comes to life expectancy when compared to non-Anglophone peer high-income countries. However, Aussies are still faring better than those in Canada, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.
“For the under fifties in Australia, we found that life expectancy is behind the majority of high-income countries, which was quite surprising. We already knew that the US and UK suffer from this problem, but we didn’t expect to see Australia (as well as Canada and New Zealand) in this group,” said lead author and ANU demographer, Dr. Sergey Timonin.
Living longer
“However, compared to English-speaking countries, Australians still enjoy a higher life expectancy, including at younger ages. It also has one of the world’s highest life expectancies at older ages,” he added.
Negatively impacted by external causes of death
“In the pre-pandemic period in 2010-19, the increase in life expectancy slowed in all Anglophone countries, except Ireland, mainly due to stagnating or rising mortality at young adults and middle-aged adults under fifty,” said Timonin. “Each of the English-speaking countries has experienced a marked mortality disadvantage for cohorts born since the early 1970s relative to the average of the other high-income countries.”
Timonin suggests that life expectancy in the younger Aussie cohorts have been negatively impacted by external causes of death such as risky behaviors, suicide, drug and alcohol-related behaviors, and traffic accidents, with substance use disorders being found to be the largest contributors to the observed disadvantage at these ages.
The need to reverse adverse trends
The researchers noted that future gains in life expectancy in wealthy societies could increase depending on reducing mortality at older ages and reversing the adverse trends among younger populations that are a cause of concern.
“This emerging and avoidable threat to health equity in English-speaking countries should be the focus of further research and policy action,” said Timonin.“There is scope for English-speaking countries to improve the health of their younger populations and to halt the widening gap in mortality compared with other high-income countries.”
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/53/5/dyae128/7811310
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/08/23/why-do-australians-live-so-long
https://worldhealth.net/news/australia-offers-lessons-for-increasing-american-life-expectancy/
https://worldhealth.net/news/bloombergs-global-health-index-for-2024/
