The Olympian Logo

Stress may be widening the U.S. longevity gap | The Olympian

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • About Us
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Plus
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Newspaper in Education
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Services
    • Archives

    • News
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Databases
    • Death Notices
    • Education
    • Local News
    • Military News
    • Obituaries
    • Politics & Government
    • State
    • Traffic
    • Watchdog
    • Weather
    • Opinion
    • Cartoons
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Opinion Columns
    • Submit a Letter
    • Sports
    • College
    • High School
    • Mariners
    • Preps Stats
    • Seahawks
    • Sounders
    • UW Huskies
    • Politics
    • Living
    • Announcements
    • Food
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Arts & Culture
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Restaurants
    • Outdoors
    • Fishing

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Op-Ed

Stress may be widening the U.S. longevity gap

BY PETER R. ORSZAG

Bloomberg

    ORDER REPRINT →

December 17, 2016 07:13 PM

Stress, I've long suspected, may explain why lifespans have been lengthening for high-income Americans but have remained the same or even shortened for low-income and middle-income people. A new analysis from the Hamilton Project released Monday adds important evidence: Biomarkers of stress have risen much more rapidly for low-income people than for high-income ones.

The most recent national data show that life expectancy declined in 2015. Although these statistics are not broken down by income, it's a good bet that the greatest declines were concentrated among lower- and middle-income people, because for decades gaps in life expectancy by income have been widening — as a National Academy of Sciences panel I co-chaired documented.

Our panel was unable to explain why this has been happening, however. A sharper decline in smoking among high-income people is one partial explanation, but this and other identifiable factors can't account for most of the growing longevity gap. And so I've come to suspect that the hidden factor is stress: As income inequality has increased, life has become substantially more stressful for low- and moderate-income families than it is for high-income families, and prolonged exposure to such stress is literally killing people.

This has always been just a theory. While there has been plenty of indirect evidence, including the opioid epidemic, there has been little direct empirical support. One recent study did find an association between workplace stress and a decline in life expectancy, and the link was especially strong for low-income workers. But that study generated its results from several sets of assumptions, and so was only suggestive.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

The new Hamilton Project analysis, however, noticeably strengthens the evidence. (I am on Hamilton's advisory council.) Diane Schanzenbach, Megan Mumford, Ryan Nunn and Lauren Bauer examined changes over time in the relationship between health and income. And, using laboratory measurements of health biomarkers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, they constructed a new measure of stress load.

That survey is particularly insightful for the purpose at hand because it collects health measurements along with more traditional socioeconomic and related data, and because its data go back several decades. The Hamilton team looked at the measurements from 1976-80 and 2009-14 to see how things had changed.

Beginning with self-reported health, the researchers found a decline for all income groups, but for high-income people, the change was small and not statistically significant. For low-income people, the decline was much larger and statistically significant.

The researchers next examined the data on biomarkers that are associated with long-term stress. Note that this approach does not measure the external environment, but rather how one internalizes it. The measurements involved have all been identified in the medical literature as predictors of illness and mortality: blood pressure, triglycerides and cholesterol (markers of cardiovascular risk); creatinine (kidney function); and albumin (liver function). The researchers then combined these into a single stress index, based on how much each variable affected self-reported health.

Two features of the results stand out. First, across the board, stress loads have grown heavier since the late 1970s. Second, the increase has been substantially larger for low-income people than for high-income people.

We may never have definitive proof of the stress theory to explain the widening life expectancy gap. But these new results — which will come as no surprise to anyone who has read "Hillbilly Elegy," by J.D. Vance — are strong evidence that stress load plays a crucial role in stagnant or declining life expectancy among America's low- and middle-income families.

Peter Orszag is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a vice chairman of investment banking at Lazard. He was President Barack Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010 and the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008.

  Comments  

Videos

What happened to this problem Olympia property?

79-year-old Beverly “Guitar” Watkins stuns at Georgia rock camp

View More Video

Trending Stories

Undercover child sex sting leads to arrest of 22 men, many from the South Sound

February 21, 2019 04:28 PM

State commission removes 2 Thurston Conservation District board members from office

February 21, 2019 09:06 AM

Olympia will offer free yard debris drop-off this weekend

February 21, 2019 10:06 AM

Flakes are falling, but this snow isn’t expected to stick around

February 22, 2019 09:41 AM

Realtor, sports consultant say they are running for Lacey City Council

February 21, 2019 07:00 AM
Local display advertising by PaperG

Read Next

Op-Ed

Legislators must fix unfair school funding plan now

By Thurston County public school superintendents

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 05, 2019 02:02 PM

Thurston County school superintendents urge lawmakers who believe they solved the K-12 funding problem to circle back and fix the flaws and inequities.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE OP-ED

Op-Ed

Is investing in college worth it? Now more than ever

February 01, 2019 12:00 PM
Legislature should move presidential primary earlier to complete voting reforms

Op-Ed

Legislature should move presidential primary earlier to complete voting reforms

January 30, 2019 03:26 PM
Applying compassion and accountability to Olympia’s homeless crisis

Op-Ed

Applying compassion and accountability to Olympia’s homeless crisis

January 23, 2019 04:04 PM
The state and its citizens both need lawmakers to pass the Long-Term Care Trust Act

Op-Ed

The state and its citizens both need lawmakers to pass the Long-Term Care Trust Act

January 22, 2019 03:10 PM
The government shutdown is abusing federal workers, and we all will pay the price

Op-Ed

The government shutdown is abusing federal workers, and we all will pay the price

January 16, 2019 03:11 PM
Climate change, transportation and housing at top of Rep. Doglio’s list for 2019 session

Op-Ed

Climate change, transportation and housing at top of Rep. Doglio’s list for 2019 session

January 10, 2019 02:36 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Olympian App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Contests-Promotions
  • Vacation Hold
  • Rewards
  • Pay Your Bill
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • Place an Obituary
  • Today's Circulars
  • Special Sections
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story