'To Understand Climbing Death Rates Among Whites, Look To Women Of Childbearing Age'

From an email suggestion:

To Understand Climbing Death Rates Among Whites, Look To Women Of Childbearing Age, by Laudan Aron, Lisa Dubay, Elaine Waxman, and Steven Martin, Health Affairs: The news that mortality is increasing among middle-aged white Americans spread like wildfire last week ... thanks to a study by Anne Case and Angus Deaton... Unfortunately, there are a couple of pieces of the puzzle ... the ... study missed.

By not looking at men and women separately, Case and Deaton failed to see that rising mortality is especially pronounced among women...., in the decade between 1992-96 and 2002-06, female mortality rates increased in 42.8 percent of US counties. Only 3.4 percent of counties, by comparison, saw an increase in male mortality rates. ...

Furthermore, our own analysis of the same data used by Case and Deaton shows that ... between 1999 and 2013, age-specific mortality rates for US white women age 45-54 increased by 26.8 deaths per 100,000 population, while the corresponding increase for men was 7.7 deaths.

By lumping women and men together, the study also missed the important point that the increases in mortality are affecting women of reproductive and childrearing ages...

Accidental poisonings ... explain only half of the total increase in deaths among white women... In addition to suicide, obesity- and smoking-related diseases are driving these mortality increases. Our findings clearly point to the need for a stronger public health focus on the misuse of prescription opioid drugs, as well as more prevention and treatment of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; mental illness; and obesity-related illnesses. ...