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Iceland has longest-lived men, U.S. scores poorly

Maggie Fox Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:58pm EDT

An Iceland fan shouts during their men's European Handball Championshipgroup B match against Serbia in Linz January 19, 2010. REUTERS/OgnenTeofilovski

An Iceland fan shouts during their men's European Handball Championshipgroup B match against Serbia in Linz January 19, 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS, smoking and obesity are reversing progressmade in helping people live longer around the world, with mortalityrates worsening over the past 20 years in 37 countries, researchersreported on Thursday.

They found Icelandic men have the lowest risk of premature death, whileCypriot women do. Some rich countries such as the United States andBritain scored relatively poorly, the survey found.

In most places, men have twice the relative mortality rate of women, Dr.Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle andcolleagues reported in the Lancet medical journal.

"Worldwide, the 1990s reversal in the trend in adult mortality isprobably a result of the HIV pandemic and the sharp rise in adultmortality in countries of the former Soviet Union," the researchers wrote.

"One of the most striking patterns is the rapid decline in adult femalemortality in south Asia; in 1970 this was the region with the highestrisk of female mortality and by 2010, (the risk of dying before age 60)had fallen by 56 percent."

Murray and colleagues used a complex formula to calculate theprobability that someone aged 15 will die before they reach 60. Theybelieve their method paints a more accurate picture than methods used by

the United Nations, and can be used to compare countries withpopulations of different ages.

In the 40 years since 1970, they found, adult mortality risk fell by 34percent among women and 19 percent in men globally.

REVERSING PROGRESS

But some places had notable reversals in rank, including the formerSoviet Union. Russia has fallen from 43rd place for female mortality in1970 to 121st.

"Research shows that across countries, inequality in adult mortality has

grown to the point where adult men in Swaziland -- the country with theworst mortality rate -- now have a probability of premature death thatis nine times the mortality rate of the best country, Cyprus," Murray'steam wrote.

The United States, where 60 percent of adults are overweight or obese,fell in overall rankings, from 34th in the world in female mortality and41st in male mortality in 1990 to 49th for women and 45th for men in2010 -- behind Chile, Tunisia, and Albania.

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But mortality rates fell 50 percent over the same time in South Korea.

Murray said he wanted to study adult mortality globally because so muchemphasis goes into helping very young children survive.

"Every year, more than 7.7 million children die before their fifthbirthday; however, over three times that number of adults -- nearly 24million -- die under the age of 60 years," his team wrote.

"The prevention of premature adult death is just as important for globalhealth policy as the improvement of child survival."

According to the United Nations, 8.8 million children under the age of 5died in 2008.