Laboratory

Population Health

Project

Why Does Health in the US Continue to Lag Behind?

Mikko Myrskylä, Neil Kishor Mehta (MPIDR / University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA)

In this project, a multidisciplinary group of researchers provides an updated and wide-ranging treatment of the question: “What are the main factors driving the US shortfall in health and mortality?” Detailed Description

Research Keywords:

Aging, Mortality and Longevity

Region keywords:

USA

Publications

Abrams, L. R.; Bramajo, O.; van Raalte, A. A.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

Insights into US life expectancy stagnation from birth cohort mortality dynamics

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 123:11, e2519356123–e2519356123. (2026)

Abrams, L. R.; Brower, N.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

Pervasive stagnation: flat and increasing cardiovascular disease mortality rates after 2010 across US states and counties

American Journal of Epidemiology 194:8, 2261–2269. (2025)

Abrams, L. R.; Brower, N.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

Pervasive stagnation: flat and rising cardiovascular disease mortality post-2010 across US states and counties

American Journal of Epidemiology 194:8, 2261–2269. (2025)

Bramajo, O.; Mehta, N. K.; Myrskylä, M.:

Catching up with stagnation: cause-specific dynamics of change in life expectancy at age 65 in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, 2000–2019

The Gerontologist 65:11, 1–11. (2025)

Ebeling, M.; Peters, F.:

National life expectancy lags behind benchmark progress and the role of smoking: an international comparison

European Journal of Population 42:1, 1–22. (2025)

Abrams, L. R.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

Reply to Polizzi and Dowd: Within-country counterfactual reveals importance of retirement age mortality in addition to established concern about working ages

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 121:4, e2320028121–e2320028121. (2024)

Abrams, L. R.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

Reply to Timonin and Cooley: Varied effects of counterfactuals in 42 countries underscore value of within-country counterfactual

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 121:24, e2407918121–e2407918121. (2024)

Abrams, L. R.; Myrskylä, M.; Mehta, N. K.:

The "double jeopardy" of midlife and old age mortality trends in the United States

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120:42, e2308360120–e2308360120. (2023)

Acosta, E.; Mehta, N. K.; Myrskylä, M.; Ebeling, M.:

Cardiovascular mortality gap between the United States and other high life expectancy countries in 2000–2016

Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 77:Suppl. 2, S148–S157. (2022)

Mehta, N. K.; Myrskylä, M.:

An introduction to the supplemental issue on why does health in the US continue to lag behind

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 77:Supplement_2, S113–S116. (2022)

Abrams, L. R.; Mehta, N. K.; Myrskylä, M.:

The growing rural-urban divide in U.S. life expectancy: contribution of cardiovascular disease and other major causes of death

International Journal of Epidemiology 50:6, 1970–1978. (2021)

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Research