Bio1610-008
Dr. Michaela Gazdik Stofer
February 24, 2017
It is very interesting to look at the different life expectancy's per country and the reasoning behind why people who live in some countries are expected to live longer than others. The article that I have chosen to write about studies the life expectancy of 10 countries in 2010 and then what they expect it to look like in 2030. When I looked at the results, my initial reaction was pretty shocked. The main gist of the article is to show that in 2030, South Korea is estimated to have a life expectancy of 90+ years.
The results of the nine other countries were pretty interesting as well. The graph in the article shows that in 2010, the men in South Korea had a life expectancy of about 77 and for women it was about 84. Then in 2030, the graph jumps and shows that for men it would be 84 and the women 91. The next country is France. In 2010, men had a life expectancy of 78, but for women it was 84. In 2030, it makes a slight change to 83 for men and 87 for women. In Japan, the life expectancy for men in 2010 was 79 and for women it was 86. Then in 2030 it is expected to be 83 for men and 87 for women. Australia had a life expectancy of 80 for men and 84 for women in 2010. It will go up to about 84 for men and 87 for women in 2030. For the men in Chile, they live until about 76 and women until 83. In 2030, it is expected to go up to 81 for men and 86 for women. Sweden had a life expectancy of 79 for men and 84 for women in 2010, In 2030, it is estimated to be 83 for men and 86 for women. The next country is Germany, their life expectancy in 2010 was 76 for men and 83 for women. In 2030, it is expected to be 82 for men and 86 for women. In the United Kingdom, men were expected to live until 78 and women 84. In 2030, it went up to 83 for men and 85 for women. In 2010, The United States had a life expectancy of 76 for men and 82 for women. It will go up a little to 79 for men and 84 for women. The last country that they studied was Serbia. In 2010 their life expectancy was 70 for men and 76 for women. In 2030, it is 74 for men and 78 for women. All of these tests were conducted by a researcher from Imperial College London, Majid Ezzati.
Considering that life expectancy is the average period that a person is expected to live, 90 years is a pretty large average. So then I asked myself, well why is it that people who live in South Korea have the longest life expectancy? Well the article continues on to answer that question. They say that the reason for their long life expectancy is because of improvements in their economic status and child nutrition. They also have equal access to health care. There is also a low rate of blood pressure and smoking among South Koreans. I was interested in this article, mainly to see the results of the United States. It was quite upsetting to see the poor results that came from this article. We are the 3rd country from the bottom and even though we increase our life expectancy by 2030, it isn't by very much. It is comforting to see that with all of these countries, researchers show that there will be an increase of life expectancy for men and women. As a woman, it is also encouraging to see that women have a longer life expectancy than men. I enjoyed reading this article because it is interesting to see how depending on where you live, not just how you live can determine your life expectancy.
source: http://www.nature.com/news/life-expectancy-set-to-hit-90-in-south-korea-1.21535
Very interesting post! Really raises some interesting points about life expectancy and the power of new breakthroughs in medicine and science. Your post also made me think about how the increase in technology is also a double edged sword. On the one hand, technology is helping us to live longer and more comfortably than ever through the advances of medicine and science, but on the other this increase in technology is being used to make cheaper food in abundance (such as junk food, fast food and highly processed/sugary foods) Which is directly affecting and opposing those breakthroughs in medicine and science (U.S. childhood obesity and diabetes to name a few) So while I am very happy for South Korea and the other countries that are increasing their life expectancy, if we in the US want to increase our own life expectancy by 2030 then we need to make some major dietary and lifestyle changes.
ReplyDelete-ZP
I absolutely love articles like these because they are directly relevant to us. The other thing I really like about this article is that is really gets me thinking about all the factors that go into determining the results, and it also makes me wonder how much longer the life expectancy trend will continue to rise, because if people stop dying, but everyone keeps having more children, eventually there will be an even bigger stress than there already is about economics, space, resources etcetera because after all the earth is a limited place by nature. My only issue is I wish it would have gone into a little more in detail about how they came to these results and what other factors could change those results in the coming years.
ReplyDelete-BR
Great post! Other than the fact that you're telling me I am probably going to die before you. Just kidding. That is very interesting that life expectancy can change based on where an individual lives. Was there anything in the article that explained why women have a generally longer life expectancy? I like that you including some of the reasons why South Korea has a longer life expectancy and its cool to compare to the US and see how we, as a country, can improve.
ReplyDelete-CL