Study finds surprising rise in death rate among middle-aged whites

A study released earlier this month found that death rates for middle-age white Americans is rising, unlike the lowering death rates for every other racial and ethnic group in the U.S. and their counterparts in other developed countries (Source: “Death Rates Rising for Middle-Aged White Americans, Study Finds,” New York Times, Nov. 3, 2015).

That finding was reported by two Princeton economists, who analyzing health and mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from other sources. The researchers concluded that rising annual death rates among this group are being driven not by the big killers like heart disease and diabetes but by an epidemic of suicides and afflictions stemming from substance abuse: alcoholic liver disease and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids.

The mortality rate for whites 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people from 1999 to 2014. In contrast, the death rate for middle-aged blacks and Hispanics continued to decline during the same period, as did death rates for younger and older people of all races and ethnic groups.

Middle-aged blacks still have a higher mortality rate than whites — 581 per 100,000, compared with 415 for whites — but the gap is closing, and the rate for middle-aged Hispanics is far lower than for middle-aged whites at 262 per 100,000.