LONDON — Men in Iceland and women in Cyprus have the lowest risk of dying prematurely, a new study says.
In a survey from 1970 to 2010, researchers found a widening gap between countries with the highest and lowest premature death rates in adults aged 15 to 60. The study was published today in the medical journal Lancet.
The findings are in contrast to the trends in child and maternal mortality, where rates are mostly dropping worldwide.
Researchers in Australia and the U.S. calculated death rates in 187 countries using records from government registries, censuses, household surveys and other sources. It was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Only a few countries have cut death rates by more than 2 percent in the past 40 years: Australia, Italy, South Korea, Chile, Tunisia and Algeria. The U.S. lagged significantly behind, dropping to 49th in the rankings for women and 45th for men. That puts it behind all of Western Europe as well as such countries as Peru, Chile and Libya.
“(The U.S.) spends the most on health out of all countries, but (it) is apparently spending on the wrong things,” said Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, one of the study’s authors.
Death rates were highest for men in Swaziland and highest for women in Zambia.
