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Stock image of an older man holding his chest
Credit: Getty<\/p>\n
As study author Leah Abrams<\/a>, an assistant professor of community health at Tufts University, said in an article<\/a> 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\u2019t as strong as prior generations had.”<\/p>\n Specifically, she said “we see concerning trends for those born from around 1970 to 1985 \u2014 the late Gen Xers<\/a> and ‘Elder Millennials<\/a>.’ These cohorts are trending worse than their predecessors in all-cause mortality; deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer, especially colon cancer; and external causes.”<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n Specifically, she noted that the rise in colon cancer<\/a> deaths was concerning: “Greater cancer prevalence can indicate that we\u2019re 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\u2019s never good to have more deaths at young ages. This is a genuinely alarming trend.”<\/p>\n She also noted that the increase in cancer and cardiovascular disease<\/a> 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\u2019s going to happen when they\u2019re in their 60s if nothing gets turned around? That\u2019s one of the looming implications of these findings.”<\/p>\n Abrams noted that “we may want to address risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Addressing colon cancer<\/a> mortality among younger individuals may involve related factors and benefit from improving diet.”<\/p>\n