According to News Medical, life expectancy is the number of years a person is expected to live based on a statistical average (http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Life-Expectancy.aspx). Healthy life expectancy is a different concept. The World Health Organization defines healthy life expectancy as the number of years one can expect to live in “full health,” free of disease and/or injury (http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/indhale/en/). The latter considers years where health is “less than full,” which means that it will be less than the life expectancy figure.
2a. What is your life expectancy? (For your race, ethnicity, biological …show more content…
Life expectancy in the United States hit a record high in 2014 (78.8), increasing by 0.1 year from 2011 when it was 78.8. The difference between men and women stayed the same, as women are expected to live 4.8 years longer. Unfortunately, black males still have the highest death rates, and black females have higher death rates than white females (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/08/us-life-expectancy-hits-record-high/16874039/).
3a. What were the top 3 causes of death in the United States in the year 1900? 2010? According to Carolina Demography of the UNC Carolina Population Center, the top three causes of death in the United States in 1900 were: infectious diseases (i.e. pneumonia and flu), tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections (http://demography.cpc.unc.edu/2014/06/16/mortality-and-cause-of-death-1900-v-2010/). The CDC reports that in 2010 the top three causes of death were: heart disease, cancer, and chronic lower respiratory diseases (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6208a8.htm).
3b. What characterizes the differences between the leading causes of death 1900 vs 2010? That is, what types of diseases where they in 1900 vs 2010? What is the cause for the shift or change in disease types as leading causes of death? What does all of this mean for health policies and