Life expectancy dropping in some parts of US

According to a new study, life expectancy for certain Americans has either stagnated or fallen. Perhaps new criteria needs to be designated for a country to count as a superpower. Healthy citizens would be a good criteria to judge by.

from New Scientist:

Majid Ezzati and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston studied mortality rates in all US counties between 1961 and 1999. They found that the inequality between counties' rates had been narrowing until the 1980s, when the trend reversed and the gap began to widen again.

Although average life expectancy in the US rose steadily over all four decades, the researchers found that it declined significantly in 11 counties for men and 180 for women. Such trends signal a healthcare failure, say the authors.

Many of the counties with the worst decline were in the Deep South and the Midwest. Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure appear to be the causes, the researchers say.