VCU doctor is lead author on shocking study showing Americans dying young at alarming rates

Dr. Steven Woolf stopped by the CBS-6 studio recently to talk about his recent study that showed rising death rates among young and middle-aged Americans, which in turn has further lowered overall longevity in the US.

In the 25-64 age demographic – essentially all working Americans- the rise in the last decade has been troubling, especially among those 25-34, which has seen a 29% rise in mortality.

Woolf points out that a third of the 33,000 “excess deaths” in that time period are concentrated in just four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana.

For more than 20 years, US longevity has fallen below that of other industrialized countries, a gap that has grown each year.