Americans can look forward to a longer life expectancy, but more aches, pains, and health problems compared to other wealthy nations, according to reports.
In the United States, the average life span has increased from 75 to 78 years during 1990 to 2010, but health-related disabilities have increased as well, according to Christopher Murray, MD, DPhil, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, MedPage Today reports.
His research team's findings were published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Despite a level of health expenditures that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago, the health of the U.S. population has improved only gradually and has fallen behind the pace of progress in many other wealthy nations," Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD, president of the Institute of Medicine, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
According to the study, the U.S. ranked lower for quality of living with disability, ranking from fifth to sixth out of 34 comparable countries.
Japan was ranked first, followed by Mexico, South Korea, Spain, and Chile took the fifth place spot as better places to live for elderly who suffer from health disabilities.
The top five most common disabilities were lower back pain, major depressive disorder, other musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety disorders. The ranking these conditions did not change from 1990 to 2010, according to MedPage Today.
"This is the first comprehensive box score of American health that's ever been published," JAMA Editor-in-Chief Howard Bauchner, MD, said at a press conference Wednesday, calling the study a "landmark paper."
Scientists associated with the study hope the report will be used to outline which "diseases, injuries, and risk factors result in the greatest losses of health and life to better target public health and medical care," MedPage Today reports.
For more information about the health study, click here.
