Health Of The American Population?

Explanation
At 77.9 years, we are tied with South Korea and Denmark for 29th – 31st place, despite being the second wealthiest country on the planet (measured by per capita GDP). Japan has the highest life expectancy at 82.3 years.(1) Based on the general correlation between GDP per capita and health, our average life expectancy “should” be 3 years longer(2). Even citizens of countries considerably poorer than ours, including Costa Rica, Chile and Greece, live longer on average than we do.
Sources: (1) 2007 United Nations Human Development Report, based on 2005 data. (http://hdr.undp.org/en/) (2) OECD Factbook 2007: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics. (http://www.oecd.org) Courtesy of Stephen Bezruchka.

Explanation
Roughly half of you health for the rest of your life is determined from the minute you were conceived to about the ripe age of 2 years old.

"The First 1,000 Days - Nutricia Research." Nutricia Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2016. .
Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days: State of the World's Mothers 2012. Westport, CT: Save the Children, 2012. Web.

Explanation
A large amount of higher overall hospital spending in the U.S. can be explained by services costing more in U.S. hospitals. When we look across a broad range of hospital services (both medical and surgical), the average price in the United States is 85 percent higher than the average in other OECD countries. Because of such high prices, equipment and services are not as abundant as in other developed countries.

"Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 May 2016. .

Explanation
Studies show that even though the United States spends two and a half times on health care per capita, hospital needs and equipment still run sparse.

"Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 May 2016. .

Explanation
The U.S. is actually has the lowest smoking rates amongst wealthy countries. According to UNDP figures, Japan has the world’s longest life expectancy AND the highest smoking rate among industrialized countries. The French also smoke more than we do but live longer. The Germans drink more and live longer. But the U.S. has the greatest income gap between the rich and the rest of us – and the worst health.
Source: 2007 United Nations Human Development Report, based on 2005 data (http://hdr.undp.org/en/)
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/
Courtesy of Stephen Bezruchka.

Explanation
We spent $6,102 per person on medical care in 2004 – 15.3% of our GDP. That’s more than double the $2,552 median of the 30 OECD countries. So why are our health outcomes among the worst in the industrialized world, even as our medical costs continue to escalate? For one thing, our health care system can only repair our bodies. The sicker people are to begin with, the greater the strains placed on our health care system.

Source: 2007 United Nations Human Development Report, based on 2004 WHO data. (http://hdr.undp.org/en/)
Courtesy of Stephen Bezruchka.

Explanation
American economic inequality is greater today than at any time since the 1920s. This represents a reversal from the mid-1970s when inequality was at its lowest level. Between 1979 and 2005, the top five percent of American families saw their real incomes increase 81 percent. During the same period, the lowest 20 percent saw their real incomes decline 1 percent.
Sources: (1) Arthur Kinneckell, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, "Currents and Undercurrents: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth, 1989-2004," January 30, 2006, http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2006/200613/200613pap.pdf
(2) U.S. Census Bureau: Historical Income Data, 1947-2005. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/histinctb.html
Courtesy of Stephen Bezruchka.

Explanation
On average, the smaller a country’s Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality), the better its health. The U.S. spends more than twice the average per capita among developed nations on health care, yet has the worst economic inequality in the industrialized world and the worst health outcomes. Although universal health care coverage is important, its impact on health is less than the social conditions that make people sick in the first place. Social policies like living wage jobs, paid sick and family leave, guaranteed paid vacations, and universal preschool can shorten the ladder of inequality and offer protections from health threats to those on lower rungs.
Courtesy of Stephen Bezruchka.

Explanation
African American’s do indeed have the worst birth outcomes in the United States and it has been proven to be associated solely to racism and not education, diet, or exercise. The unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio of very low birthweight infants for maternal lifetime exposure to interpersonal racism in 3 or more domains equaled 3.2 (95% confidence intervals=1.5, 6.6) and 2.6 (1.2, 5.3), respectively. This association tended to persist across maternal sociodemographic, biomedical, and behavioral characteristics.
Collins, James W., Richard J. David, Arden Handler, Stephen Wall, and Steven Andes. "Very Low Birthweight in African American Infants: The Role of Maternal Exposure to Interpersonal Racial Discrimination." American Journal of Public Health. © American Journal of Public Health 2004, n.d. Web. 22 May 2016. .

Explanation
In the article below there are both graphs and facts that show the US and their spending in the health care sector. We are far and away the highest spender from all of the others in percentage of our GNP but the US also spends more per capita on health care by about $3,000 compared to the next highest spending nation. The US also spends more out of pocket for private health care than all but 1 nation and several rich developed nations spend a quarter of what the US spends.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-from-a-global-perspective

Explanation
The reason the US is so high is because of their full lives. United States residents often feel like they have to constantly be doing something. This includes long work hours, then coming back home to housework and leisure activities. Another reason for the US's stress is the constant effort to make more money and the environmental stress put on ourselves to always be moving up in an economic sense.
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-so-stressful-to-live-in-America-in-comparison-to-other-countries

Explanation
This link will take you to a bunch of statistics. Each of them can be broken down further when clicked on individually. One can see that the toy industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that the US dominates overall.The reason behind this consumerism is advertising which affects the US much more so than other countries because the US allows direct advertising to children. The US also differs in it's allowance of direct medical advertising to the public. This allows pharmaceutical corporations to take advantage of our fears in their ads and in response we pay large amounts of money, often times for medication we don't need.
http://www.statista.com/topics/1108/toy-industry/

Explanation
The two links will lead you to educational videos. One is a UW alum talking about the issue of maternity leave in the US and the other is John Oliver talking about the same issue. Both perspectives are important to hear because they show the importance of this issue; not only was it recognized by an up and coming collegiate graduate but also by a nationally televised program. It's a simple change that could have big positive effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIgyVdlDd-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIhKAQX5izw

Explanation
Maternal mortality has doubled in the US since 1990, which is highly unusual compared to other countries. The top 21 countries are all in single digits for this statistic and include places such as Israel, Portugal and Qatar. The US ranks a lowly 48 out of 184 in this category. This statistic differs between demographics in the US greatly as caucasians have a rate of 12.5 and African-Americans have a rate of 42.8. The articles below will show you how this is happening in the US and why.
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/93/3/14-148627/en/
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2223rank.html

Explanation
Many people think the best things for ones health are in choices we make everyday. Unfortunately this is wrong and the true determinant of health is how unequal our society is. The gap of inequality is the biggest influence on the health of a population and the smaller this gap is the healthier the group is a whole. Ultimately having money is one's best bet to be healthy.
http://www.who.int/hia/evidence/doh/en/