美国预期寿命连续下降，疑与类鸦片药物流行有关

美国的人均寿命已经是连续第二年下滑了。

美国疾病预防和控制中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）的分支机构国家卫生统计中心（National Center for Health Statistics）的数据显示，美国人2016年的预期寿命是78.6岁，较前一年下滑0.1%。尽管跌幅较小，但却具有统计意义。报告指出，这一下滑很大程度上是因为美国类鸦片药物的日益流行所致——2016年因为吸毒过量导致的死亡人数增加了21%。

在2015年，美国人的预期寿命二十多年来首次出现下滑。上一次出现这种情况是在1993年，那是艾滋病最猖獗的时代。而上一次预期寿命连续两年下滑，还要追溯到1962年和1963年，当时流感导致了死亡数的激增。

统计死亡率的机构主管鲍勃·安德森表示，目前为止，今年的下滑还不至于被称为“趋势”，尽管他的确指出“连续两年看到这种现象令人忧虑”。此外，2017年的临时性数据显示，吸毒相关的死亡数还在继续攀升，“如果我们不注意，”还将导致预期寿命连续第三年下滑，这是100年前西班牙流感肆虐之后从未有过的。

美国也因此成为了预期寿命下滑、死亡率攀升的少数发达国家之一。根据世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）的数据，2015年，加拿大、西班牙、意大利和日本等29个国家的新生儿预期寿命都超过了80岁。

尽管越来越多人开始担忧类鸦片物质的流行，但2015年来，排名前十的死亡原因并未变动。它们分别是：心脏病、癌症、意外伤害、慢性下呼吸道疾病、中风、阿尔茨海默病、糖尿病、流感与肺炎、肾病和自杀。而且，尽管整体预期寿命下滑了，但对女性来说，数字没有那么糟糕：女性的预期寿命依旧维持不变，为81.1岁，而男性则下滑到76.1岁。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

For the second year in a row, American life expectancy is down.

According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics(NCHS), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy for a baby born in 2016 fell to 78.6 years, which is a small but statistically significant decline of 0.1 percent. The report noted that this drop is due in large part to the growing opioid epidemic in the U.S.—mortality from drug overdoses rose by 21 percent in 2016.

The decline seen in 2015 was the first in more than two decades. The last time time there was a one-year drop was in 1993, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. With American life expectancy dropping again in 2016, this is the first multi-year drop recorded since 1962 and 1963, when influenza caused a spike in deaths.

While chief of the mortality statistics branch Bob Anderson said he wouldn’t go so far as to call this year’s decline a “trend,” he did note that it’s “concerning to see this two years in a row.” What’s more, the provisional data for 2017 indicates that drug-related deaths have continued to increase, which, “if we’re not careful” could lead to a declining life expectancy for a third year in a row, something that hasn’t been seen since the Spanish flu 100 years ago.

With these numbers, the U.S. is one of few developed countries where the life expectancy is declining and mortality increasing. According to the World Health Organization, newborns in 29 countries, including Canada, Spain, Italy, and Japan, had life expectancies over 80 years in 2015.

Despite growing concern about the opioid epidemic, the top ten leading causes of death have remained the same since 2015. They include: heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide. And while overall life expectancy has decreased, the numbers are slightly less grim for women: female life expectancy remained the same at 81.1 years, while it dropped to 76.1 years for men.