From Dr. Ho:
Contemporary high-income countries have achieved the highest life expectancies observed to date in human history. However, there remains considerable variation even among these long-lived populations. This talk explains why the United States has the lowest life expectancy among high-income countries, now lagging behind its peers by decades. I will also explore how countries like Japan, Switzerland, and Australia are attaining and maintaining the highest life expectancy levels in the world. I examine how factors like the health care system, health behaviors, and configurations of welfare states contribute to life expectancy advantages and disadvantages.
Dr. Ho is a demographer and sociologist whose expertise lies in the study of aging, health, and mortality. Her major areas of research examine: (1) why American life expectancy lags far behind other high-income countries, (2) factors contributing to widening inequalities in mortality across social groups within the United States, and (3) the causes and consequences of the contemporary American drug overdose epidemic. Her work highlights the key role health behaviors and other socially patterned factors play in shaping American mortality. Some of her current projects focus on identifying how factors related to American culture, social institutions, and the organization of everyday life may explain why the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy of any high-income country and the consequences of the drug overdose epidemic for older adults, families, and intergenerational relationships.
