Dramatic U.S. 20th Century Health Gains--Study

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Dramatic U.S. 20th Century Health Gains--Study

Reuters (www.reuters.com) (12/04/00)

A new report in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics indicates that there were significant public health gains during the 20th century. The report, prepared by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that a better standard of living, immunization programs for children, and better medical practices and medications have resulted is substantially improved health for Americans. While a person born at the beginning of the last century was only expected to live about 49 years, life expectancy at the end of the century was 76.5 years. Furthermore, the rate of death dropped nearly 75 percent between 1900 and 1998, with the leading causes of death shifting from infectious respiratory diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia to heart disease and cancer.
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