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A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found people born between 1970 and 1985 face rising deaths from cancer and heart disease
Researchers call these trends “genuinely alarming”
These trends could worsen as this group ages, explaining, “What’s going to happen when they’re in their 60s if nothing gets turned around?”
People born between 1970 to 1985 are dying more frequently, in what researchers call a “genuinely alarming trend.”
Historically, each generation has improved its life expectancy and mortality rate over the generation before it. But a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people born after 1970 are seeing “increasing mortality in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and external causes compared to their predecessors, implying continuation of poor mortality trends as they age.”
Stock image of an older man holding his chest
Credit: Getty
As study author Leah Abrams, an assistant professor of community health at Tufts University, said in an article from the university, “Baby Boomers born between 1950 and 1959 mark a turning point. Before that group, each successive birth cohort seemed to have lower mortality than the one before it. This group has experienced worse outcomes than the generations before them. And the generations that followed them had mortality improvements that weren’t as strong as prior generations had.”
Specifically, she said “we see concerning trends for those born from around 1970 to 1985 — the late Gen Xers and ‘Elder Millennials.’ These cohorts are trending worse than their predecessors in all-cause mortality; deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer, especially colon cancer; and external causes.”
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Specifically, she noted that the rise in colon cancer deaths was concerning: “Greater cancer prevalence can indicate that we’re simply catching cancer sooner; if you do more screenings at younger ages, more younger people will be diagnosed. But our study shows increased mortality, and it’s never good to have more deaths at young ages. This is a genuinely alarming trend.”
She also noted that the increase in cancer and cardiovascular disease deaths among Gen X and Elder Millennials is “cause for concern” because those illnesses “tend to be relatively rare in individuals who are in their 30s and 40s. So if these cohorts are showing worse mortality trends already, what’s going to happen when they’re in their 60s if nothing gets turned around? That’s one of the looming implications of these findings.”
Abrams noted that “we may want to address risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Addressing colon cancer mortality among younger individuals may involve related factors and benefit from improving diet.”
Read the original article on People