U.S. State Policies and Life Expectancy

Last year, the VCU Center on Society and Health published a study that showed the mortality rates among working-age Americans continue to rise, causing a decrease in life expectancy in the United States. A new study, co-authored by the center’s director emeritus, Steven Woolf, seeks to explain this change.

“US State Policies, Politics, and Life Expectancy”, published Milbank Quarterly, shows that state policies since the 1970s, particularly after 2010, on issues such as tobacco, labor, immigration, civil rights, and the environment appear to be driving these trends in life expectancy. After examining policy changes in all 50 states, the researchers found that states with more left-leaning policies had better life expectancy outcomes compared to states which policies were more right-leaning. 

For example, In 1959, life expectancy was 71.1 years in both the states of Connecticut and Oklahoma. But by 2017, Connecticut had gained 9.6 years while Oklahoma gained only 4.7 years. 

According to the study, Connecticut made the greatest movement towards liberal policies between 1970 and 2014, which may have helped it claim its place as one of the states with the longest life expectancy. At the same time, Oklahoma has made the greatest movement towards more conservative policies and is currently one of the states with the shortest life expectancy. 

The researchers also estimated that US life expectancy would be 2.8 years longer among women and 2.1 years longer among men if all states shared the same health advantages of states with more liberal policies.

The study points out that while individual behaviors and medical care are important, Americans’ opportunities and constraints for living a healthy life, and in this case a long life, are strongly shaped by structural conditions. 

The study was lead by Dr. Jennifer Karas Montez and an interdisciplinary team at Syracuse University. The report is open-access and you can read it online at the Wiley Online Library.