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Life expectancy
in the United States from 1900 to the present shows an overall steady rise, reflecting
improved health conditions in general, the result of advances in medical science, hygiene,
personal care, health technologies, and public health administrations. The rise
decelerates asymptotically to a near plateau from the 1950s to the 1970s, reflecting an
epidemic of coronary disease, which we do not yet fully understand. Improvements in
medical care, attention to life style, or indiscriminate use of aspirin may all be
responsible for the subsequent decrease in deaths from coronary disease. Up to the 1940s,
the rising curve is jagged, reflecting sporadic infectious disease outbreaks, especially
the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. |