Economic influences on population health in the United States: Toward policymaking driven by data and evidence

Abstract

The United States is in the midst of a 40-year-long population health crisis. Life expectancy has declined since 2014, an unprecedented event that has followed on the heels of a decades-long slowing in secular gains in longevity in the US relative to peer countries. These adverse population health trends appear to be primarily driven by worsening health among working-age individuals of lower socioeconomic status.