The US Health Care System and Lagging Life Expectancy: A Case Study

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PSC Working Paper Series
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Age
BMI
Body mass index
Breast cancer
Cancer
Cancer mortality
Cause of death
Causes of death
Data
Death rate
Demographic methods
Demography
Developed countries
Developing Countries
Disease
Health care system
International Agency for Research on Cancer
Life expectancy
Morbidity
Mortality
Personal health care
Prostate cancer
Prostate Specific Antigen Screening
PSA screening test
Race
Risk
Sex
Statistics
Survival rates
Treatment
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United States
United States National Center for Health Statistics
World Health Organization
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
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Abstract

Life expectancy in the United States fares poorly in international comparisons. Its low ranking is often blamed on a poor performance by the health care system rather than on behavioral factors. This paper compares mortality trends from prostate cancer in the United States to those in other developed countries. Prostate cancer is chosen because it can be detected at an early stage, because effective treatments are available, and because it is less heavily influenced by behavioral factors than most other chronic diseases. We find that, after the introduction of the PSA screening test for prostate cancer, mortality from the disease declined significantly faster in the United States than in the set of comparison countries. Trends in incidence and survival rates support the interpretation that the US health care system has worked very effectively to reduce mortality from this important disease. A brief consideration of breast cancer suggests that similar processes may have been at work among women.

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2009-03-25
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Preston, Samuel H. and Jessica Ho. 2009. "The US Health Care System and Lagging Life Expectancy: A Case Study." PSC Working Paper Series PSC 09-01.
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