In this age of advanced medicine and health consciousness, death rates are falling in the United States. Every age group, racial group and ethnic group are living longer and healthier lives – except one.
A pair of Princeton economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, studied mortality rates of modern Americans, and discovered that middle-aged white Americans are victims of a rising annual death rate. Curiously though, those rates aren’t fueled by consequences of the obesity epidemic like diabetes or heart disease, but rather by substance abuse.
The Heroin Epidemic
White Americans aged 45 to 54, specifically those without post-high school education, are dying so frequently that it’s driving up the overall death rate for the entire demographic. The rate has increased by more than 22% since 1999. Meanwhile, death rates for similarly-aged African Americans and Hispanics have decreased.
This odd pattern coincides with the nation’s increased rate of heroin abuse. Heroin-related overdose deaths have increased by 286% from 2002 to 2013, but curiously, usage rates are on the decline for non-whites.
This epidemic has also moved from low-income urban areas to suburban neighborhoods once thought to be immune to the suffering and havoc caused by heroin addiction and sales. As of 2013, non-Hispanic whites, aged 45-64, were almost four times more likely to die from heroin use than they were at the turn of the century. Experts say that might be tied to heroin’s association with prescription drug abuse.
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Prescription Drug Problem
Nearly half of all American heroin addicts also abuse prescription drugs, and inversely, studies say that people are 40 times more likely to be addicted to heroin if they abuse painkillers. A startling one in 20 Americans admitted to taking painkillers recreationally in 2013, which might explain why fatal overdoses for prescription drugs current outnumber heroin and cocaine combined.
Curiously, doctors argue that substance abuse, however prevalent, doesn’t completely explain the rising death rates for middle-aged whites. Deaton and Case noted factors like financial distress, mental illness, difficulty socializing and education – or lack thereof – are also increasing within the demographic. Many middle-aged whites said they were unable to hold down jobs because of various disorders or infirmities. This rising mental anguish combined with failing health work together explain the increase in substance abuse-related deaths.
So far, this drug epidemic seems to have been less publicized than ongoing issues like obesity and cancer. It hasn’t yet garnered the national attention it probably deserves. But as deaths continue to skyrocket – and as the suicide and drug poisoning rates rise for middle-aged white Americans –patterns will begin to emerge and more people will start to take note.
