ReviewAnnual review of public health2014
Why do Americans have shorter life expectancy and worse health than do people in other high-income countries?
Review in Annual review of public health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The prevalence of occupational injuries and associated risk factors among workers in iron and steel industries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Diminished Returns of Neighborhood Cohesion for Self-rated Health Across Racial and Ethnic Groups Among Working-age Adults in the United States.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Public Policies in Historical Context and the Association Between Education and US Older Adults' Health.The Milbank quarterly · 2026Article
- Changing educational attainment as a driver of cohort changes in healthy longevity: a decomposition analysis of US birth cohorts.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Voting Restrictions and Increased Odds of Adverse Birth Outcomes in the US.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Uncovering mechanisms of historical change in midlife loneliness across the United States and Europe: a focus on physical activity, health conditions, and wealth.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- The geography of American longevity: structural determinants of a 20-year life expectancy divide and a federal policy blueprint.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Catching up with stagnation: cause-specific dynamics of change in life expectancy at age 65 in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, 2000-2019.The Gerontologist · 2025Observational
- Life Expectancy and Health Expectancy in the Twenty-first Century: The Unthinkable, the Inconceivable, and the Unknowable.Demography · 2025Article
- A panel data study on the role of clean energy in promoting life expectancy.Dialogues in health · 2025Article
- Role of Cardiovascular Deaths on Changes in the Longevity Gap Between U.S. and Other Countries.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Observational
- Methods Used to Evaluate the Health Effects of Social Policies: A Systematic Review.Current epidemiology reports · 2025Article
- Unincorporation in counties as a political determinant of health: An exploration of five states.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Wealth-related inequalities in self-reported health status in the United States and 14 high-income countries.Health services research · 2024Article
- Cross-sectional Average Length of Life Entropy (European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2024Article
- Delivering COVID-19 Vaccine via Trusted Social Services: Program Evaluation Results from the Chicagoland CEAL Program.Journal of community health · 2024Article
- Failing Population Health: US Life Expectancy Falling Behind.American journal of public health · 2023Article
- Solving racial/ethnic disparities associated with Medicare Part D Star Ratings.Current medical research and opinion · 2023Article
- Missing Americans: Early death in the United States-1933-2021.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Subjective expectation of reaching age 85: agreement with population statistics and association with behavioral and psychological factors.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Americans lead shorter and less healthy lives than do people in other high-income countries. We review the evidence and explanations for these variations in longevity and health. Our overview suggests that the US health disadvantage applies to multiple mortality and morbidity outcomes. The American health disadvantage begins at birth and extends across the life course, and it is particularly marked for American women and for regions in the US South and Midwest. Proposed explanations include differences in health care, individual behaviors, socioeconomic inequalities, and the built physical environment. Although these factors may contribute to poorer health in America, a focus on proximal causes fails to adequately account for the ubiquity of the US health disadvantage across the life course. We discuss the role of specific public policies and conclude that while multiple causes are implicated, crucial differences in social policy might underlie an important part of the US health disadvantage.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.