Middle-aged white Americans are dying at such a high rate that, as a group, their mortality rate is shooting up.
That's the conclusion of research by a pair of Princeton University economists. Angus Dean and Anne Case studied mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that the rising death rate among middle-aged white was being propelled by suicide, diseases and deaths related to substance abuse.
The main subset of this group that's experiencing mid-life deaths: whites with no greater education than a high school degree. That group had an increase in middle-aged death of 134 deaths per 100,000 between 1999 and 2014, the study showed.
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As reported by the New York Times, middle-aged blacks still have the highest death rate among the major racial groups. But, the Times said, the gap between blacks and whites is narrowing quickly, and the rate is dropping for blacks as it rises for whites. Hispanics, the Times said, have a much lower death rate in middle age than either of the other major groups.
The researchers said they had no clear understanding of the trend, which clearly fell hardest upon middle-aged whites with only a high school education or less. (The rate has been dropping for whites with college degrees.)
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
