The effects of prenatal deaths on national life expectancy: case study U.S.A.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18041/2665-427X/ijeph.2.10669Keywords:
health policy, life expectancy, life years, DALYAbstract
Introduction: It is a positive indicator that human life
expectancies calculated from birth have been increasing. The current standards for counting life-years, however, assume social desirability and exclude all prenatal deaths. These assumptions mask low life-year deaths and obscure results of medical and environmental interventions, thus falsely indicating higher life expectancies.
Aim: To quantify the life expectancy with and without
social desirability.
Methods: This case study investigates 1930 to 2016 using CDC and World Bank data for the U.S. for the impact of social desirability on life expectancy.
Results: It is evident, published U.S. life expectancies are greatly exaggerated and what would have been
short-lived Americans are disproportionately labeled as socially-undesirable and ignored when counting life years, thus presenting an overly-optimistic view of U.S. health.
Conclusions: A comprehensive global investigation is
needed, and a refinement of life expectancy calculations
should be introduced, which does not bias results by only counting life expectancy from the time of live birth.
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