Life expectancy fell slightly in the United States in 2008 for the first time since 2004.
According to a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics released Thursday, US life expectance fell to 77.8 years in 2008, from 77.9 years in 2007.
The CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report is based on death records comprising more than 99 percent of the demographic and medical files of all deaths in the US in 2008.
It showed a decrease in life expectancy for both men and women, falling by about one-tenth of a year from 2007 to 2008, or the equivalent of about a month.
It went from 80.4 to 80.3 years for females; 75.4 to 75.3 years for males.
The drop in US life expectancy measured by the report is the first decline since 2004. Although small, any drop in life expectancy is a retrograde development, and the decline observed by the CDC report almost certainly corresponds to rising levels of social inequality, poverty, and lack of access to health care as a result of the recession...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/life-d11.shtml