Fifteen Years of Worse Health and Shorter Lives in the United States: Debating the Causes (Co-sponsored by Medical Sociology Section)

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

Since around 2010, American life expectancy stagnated, and then worsened; so did many other dimensions of health. The reasons for these deleterious trends are much-debated and range widely from social alienation in post-industrial economies, to the long arm of the Great Recession, to childhood lead exposure. This session will tackle these questions from many angles, including whether the United States is likely to continue to be an outlier in these negative trends or is a harbinger of a broader, more global downturn in longevity. Speakers will also reflect on larger lessons for approaching questions about how social transformations are expressed through the functioning of human bodies.

Sub Unit

• Biology and Society Section / Fifteen Years of Worse Health and Shorter Lives in the United States: Debating the Causes

Cosponsor

• Medical Sociology Section

Presider

• Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Panelists

• Jennifer Beam Dowd, University of Oxford

• Ryan K. Masters, University of Colorado Boulder

• Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Hui Zheng, University of Toronto

Session Organizer

• Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities