Tuesday, August 14, 2007

U.S. lags behind 41 nations in life span

Yahoo News

"Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries."

"Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.

"Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington."

"Forty countries, including Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004."

"A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the Census Bureau. It was followed by Japan, Maucau, San Marino and Singapore."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

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