Trends in "Deaths of Despair" Among Working-Aged White and Black Americans, 1990-2017.

ABSTRACT: Life expectancy for US White men and women declined between 2013 and 2017. Initial explanations for the decline focused on increases in "deaths of despair" (i.e., deaths from suicide, drug use, and alcohol use), which have been interpreted as a cohort-based phenomenon afflicting middle-aged White Americans. There has been less attention on Black mortality trends from these same causes, and whether the trends are similar or different by cohort and period. We complement existing research and contend that recent mortality trends in both the US Black and White populations most likely reflect period-based exposures to 1) the US opioid epidemic and 2) the Great Recession. We analyzed cause-specific mortality trends in the United States for deaths from suicide, drug use, and alcohol use among non

SUBMITTER: Tilstra AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8579049 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature