Abstract
Purpose: The leading causes of mortality in the US include chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer. These diseases may also be classified as major “lifestyle” diseases that trace partially to imprudent living and risky behavior. Design: To examine the monetary costs of lifestyle choices. Setting: USA Subjects: USA citizens Measures: We utilized the most recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics and mortality costs from the USA Census Bureau in order to estimate the costs of lifestyle decisions leading to premature death. Analysis: This study examines the monetary costs associated with six personal lifestyle decisions- smoking, diet, excessive alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, accidents, sexually transmitted infections-and consequent premature mortalities. Results: Our study showed that 40.0% of the 2.47 million deaths annually in the USA may be attributed to lifestyle decisions. The majority of premature deaths that occurred were associated with three lifestyle decisions-smoking, obesity or excessive alcohol consumption. Smoking, obesity, sexually transmitted infections and accidents decreased vis-a-vis the previous decade; whereas, illicit drugs and alcohol-related premature deaths increased from the previous decade. Conclusion: The value of lifetime earnings lost among individuals as a consequence of lifestyle choices is $241 billion annually. The prospect for future declines in these premature deaths will most likely depend on a decrease in risk factors, continued lifestyle modification and population-based intervention strategies.
Highlights
The health status of populations has long been a focus for policymakers
Our study showed that 40.0% of the 2.47 million deaths annually in the USA may be attributed to lifestyle decisions
The majority of premature deaths that occurred were associated with three lifestyle decisions-smoking, obesity or excessive alcohol consumption
Summary
The health status of populations has long been a focus for policymakers. Seminal work in the United States (US) established the contributions that factors such as environment and lifestyle make to population health [1,2,3]. The leading causes of mortality in the USA include heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. These diseases have genetic components, but are the major “lifestyle” diseases that trace tangibly to imprudent living and risky behavior. Keeney [5] examined how personal decision making affects mortality rates. He found one million of the 2.4 million deaths in 2000 were attributed to personal decisions and could have been avoided if readily available alternative choices were made. Keeney [5] described a personal decision as a situation where an individual can make a choice between two or more alternatives. His analysis assumed that there were many decisions prior to death and that with respect to at least of one these decisions, the individual did have control of the choice and was aware of an alternative which, if chosen, could have avoided the premature death
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