Americans more likely to die younger than people in other developed nations

boing
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Ah, but those other nations will never know the feeling of emptying an AR-15 out the window of a pickup truck while eating a Krispy-Kreme burger filled with cocaine.

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“Americans more likely to die younger than people in other developed nations”

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I’ve found an undated preview version:
http://paa2015.princeton.edu/uploads/151101
Here is the real research-letter:

When seeing the difference in age of mortality attributable to automobile accidents, I wondered if that correlates to difference in Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) per Capita between countries. The US is substantially greater than Germany or France in VMT per Capita, so one would expect the death rate from automobile accidents to track similarly.

When seeing the difference in age of mortality attributable to firearms, I wondered if suicides were disaggregated. They weren’t at least in the preview. The suicide rates per 100,000 population are:

France   12.3/100,000 of which 2.16/100,000 are by firearm (2012)
Germany   9.2/100,000 of which 0.84/100,000 are by firearm (2012)
USA      12.1/100,000 of which 6.70/100,000 are by firearm (2013)

Since well over half of USA suicides involve firearms, compared to just under 1/6 in France and less than 1/10 in Germany, I have to wonder if the difference in life expectancy attributable to firearms would disappear if we separated out suicides and counted them together.

There are many who advocate for restricting access to means of suicide, such as firearms, poisons, and drugs, as a means to reduce the number of suicides. But while that has apparently been successful, it is also evident that substitution of method takes place when one means is restricted.

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That Yosemite Sam GIF has so many uses…!

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Can I get that measured in micromorts?

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what about the good looking corpse thing? how’s that working?

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They outlive us because of our freedoms.

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I think this is largely due to the way we value human life, which is largely tied to a person’s place in the economy.

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Dammit. Still?

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Maybe you should take out suicide by car then?

Plus the US’s death rate by car is higher than many if not most countries for many reasons, not just longer journeys.

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And let’s not forget suicide by drugs, which is often simply labeled as “overdose”.

Our rate of suicide by firearm is more than 3x France and 8x Germany. Because we know from multitudes of studies that people who use guns are more likely to be successful in their suicide attempts, we can reasonably infer that more people attempt suicide in France and Germany than in the U.S. Why is not part of this study, but it is an interesting question.

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Per capita? We don’t even rank in the top twenty. The only way we make the top of that list is if we limit it to Canada and Western Europe.

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C’mon now, that doesn’t fit with the “all guns are bad” narrative.

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Typical liberal lamestream media spin.
Here’s a better headline instead:
“Americans more likely to die FREER than people in other developed nations.”

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I thought it was about fast food and heart disease…

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I feel back because I’ve never run out. Clearly I’m not liking stuff as much as I should.

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actually there is some connection that access to guns influences the suicide, or the success of the suicide. In a study in Israel, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21034205 where suicide rate in soldiers was high, the army stopped letting the soldiers take their guns home on weekends and suicide rate went down by 40%. Since they didn’t have access to a very effective method of killing themselves when the suicidal thoughts occurred to them, they were at the very least less successful at doing it.

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Man, those were going to be the best 2.2 years of my life.

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