Health in the U.S. at Young Ages: Preliminary Findings

Palloni, Alberto, and James A. Yonker
Working paper no. 2012-04

Abstract

We review a broad set of health-related indicators—mortality, health outcomes, proximate health determinants, and distal health determinants—for the US and a comparison group of peer OECD countries. The principal findings are: (a) the US ranks consistently worse than peer countries on all but a few indicators; and (b) there is a strong relationship between the US health rankings across the life cycle: performance at one stage predicts performance in subsequent stages.