Life expectancy decreases in U.S., Arkansas doctors not surprised

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A new report from the CDC shows life expectancy in the U.S. is continuing to drop.

According to final mortality data released last week, U.S. Life Expectancy decreased in 2021 for the second consecutive year. This is the lowest it has been since 1996.

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The drop was primarily due to increases in COVID-19 and drug overdose deaths. 

This news comes as no surprise to doctors in Arkansas. Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, Director of the Arkansas Department of Health, was one of those doctors.

“We’ve had just a tremendous number of deaths related to Covid,” Dillaha said. “It’s quite expected that the life expectancy has decreased in the U.S.”

According to data from the ADH, Drug overdose deaths hit 547 in 2020. It dropped by just one in 2021, though Dr. Nihit Kumar, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UAMS said this was still more than usual during the pandemic.

“We already knew before the pandemic that life expectancy was being contributed by the death of opioid overdoses anyways,” he said. “The pandemic just made everything worse.”

Kumar said there were a few reasons for this early in the pandemic.

“Access to treatments suddenly dropped,” he said. “There was a lot more telemedicine… us providers were a lot more lenient with medication.”

Dillaha said Arkansas is on a path that leads her to believe COVID-19 is going to continue playing a major role in life expectancy rates for some time.

Meantime, Kumar said he is hopeful to see a positive change in drug overdose deaths as we get back to normal with treatments.

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Kumar said there are plenty of resources specifically through UAMS for those who are struggling, which can be found online. UAMS has also launched an app to help prevent opioid use disorder relapses.

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