The wealth paradox in the United States reveals that even the richest Americans die faster than their European counterparts

A shocking new study shows that Americans at each wealth level, including the richest quarter, have significantly higher mortality rates than their European counterparts, challenging the United States’ long-term assumptions about wealth and lifespan.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was found that the richest Americans had a comparable survival rate to the poorest residents in Western European countries, such as Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“The findings remind people that even the wealthiest Americans do not avoid systemic problems in the United States, resulting in reduced life expectancy such as economic inequality or risk factors such as stress, diet or environmental hazards.”

Over the past decade, a comprehensive analysis has tracked more than 73,000 adults aged 50 to 85 in the United States and 16 European countries. During the median 10-year follow-up period, nearly 19% of participants died, and both wealth and geographical lines showed obvious patterns.

Although researchers have confirmed that people with greater wealth tend to live longer in all studied countries, the survival advantages of wealth are most evident in the United States. Americans with the highest wealth quarters have a 40% lower death rate than Americans in the poorest quartiles, but even these wealthy Americans have higher death rates than those of quite wealthy Europeans.

In all regions, the mortality rate gap is large between Americans and Europeans. The death rate for Americans is about 40% higher than that of mainland European residents, 30% higher than that of southern Europe and 13-20% higher than that of Eastern Europe during the study period.

“We found that your place in the distribution of national wealth and your place in your country is crucial than others in their lives,” explains Sara Machado, study author at Brown Health System Sustainability Center. “Solving health outcomes is not only the most vulnerable challenge, but even the top quarter of wealth is affected.”

This study provides some potential explanations for the mortality disadvantage in the United States. The U.S. social safety net is much weaker than most European countries, which may make wealthy Americans more vulnerable to health shocks. Lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking, and rural life (related to poor health) are also more common in the U.S. population.

Perhaps most worrying is that researchers have found an unsettling “survivor effect” in the United States, where poorer people with poor health outcomes are more likely to die earlier. This creates the misleading impression that wealth inequality narrows with age, when in fact it reflects the early deaths of the poorest Americans.

“Our previous work shows that despite the narrowing of wealth inequality after 65 people in the United States and Europe, in the United States, the faster the deaths of the poorest Americans, the greater the proportion,” Papanicolas noted.

These findings are because life expectancy in the United States has been declining in recent years, a trend that predates the 19th pandemic. The study provides a more nuanced view of how this decline affects Americans at different levels of wealth and shows that these factors drive health disadvantages across socio-economic aspects of the United States.

Health policy experts have long debated whether US health care spending (the world’s highest) has appropriate value. This study shows that spending alone may not address the fundamental factors driving health disparities.

“It doesn’t have to cost more, it’s about addressing the factors we’re overlooking, which may be much more than we realize,” Machado said. “If you look at other countries, there will be better results, which means we can learn from them and improve.”

The researchers hope these findings will prompt policy makers to not only reform health care services, but also consider broader social and environmental factors that affect health outcomes for all Americans, regardless of their wealth.

As the study makes clear, even having a large amount of financial resources does not completely lift Americans out of systemic problems that contribute to the growing mortality gap between the country and its peers. For a country that prides itself on opportunities and achievements, this study presents both a challenge and a challenge to healthier and longer life.