Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 07, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 14 minutes ago
According to a new report by Moody's Analytics and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the
health of
millennials is deteriorating more rapidly than older generations' did, and that could have a devastating effect on the economy. The report paints a dismal picture of how the 2009 economic recession affected
millennials'
health.
Mark Zandi, a chief economist for Moody's, who spoke recently at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health of America Forum at the Kimmel Center told
Thailand Medical News, "This is going to be a very negative, self-reinforcing cycle, and we need to break it."
Millennials are people who were born between 1981 and 1996, and
Generation Xers were born between 1965 and 1980.
Most now aged between 23 to 38,
millennials not just in the US but also globally, suffer from higher rates of physical ailments, such as
hypertension and high cholesterol, as well as behavioral
health problems such as depression when compared with the generation before them.
Due to different moral standards and increased sexual promiscuity, many are also infected with not just various sexually transmitted diseases such as HPV, Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Herpes, but many are also developing cancer as a result of these STIs at an even earlier age.
Coupled with changes in the food chain and dietary habits and the increased consumption of ultra-processed foods, many
millennials at a younger age are developing not just cancers that used to affect the elderly but also various neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.
Should the trend continues,
millennials could have shorter life expectancy than
Generation X. the
millennial mortality rate could increase by more than 40% compared with that of
Generation X at the same age, according to the study Greater
health needs could drive up
health spending by 33% compared with
Generation X, researchers estimated.
The
millennial mortality rate for age 35 is on track to be just below 0.25% for men and about 0.12% for women. That's up from a
Generation X mortality rate at age 35 that peaked at just under 0.20% for men and about 0.10% for women, the report shows.
Zandi added, "Exercise is the most important thing. It's the one thing they can do that cuts across everything, and people need to know that even walking (more) counts."
Bad and poor
health is something of a "vicious cycle," said Dr Tom Campanella, an associate professor of health economics at Baldwin Wallace University in the Cleveland suburb of Berea. A de
pressed person is not only more likely to suffer from substance abuse but also less likely to exercise, he said.
Dr Campanella added that the advent of social media and personal devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. Together, they allow people to entertain themselves without much physical activity and can isolate people from others, leading to more depression.
Dr Campanella said "I think there's some direct tie-ins to a number of different factors. But if you're glued to the cellphone, the social media or the video game, you're not out there doing sports or exercising."
The recent Blue Cross Blue Shield report, Dr Campanella said, should serve as a warning sign to
millennials. That means they need to go to the doctor for regular checkups instead of just when they get sick.
The report also says that almost one-third of
millennials do not have a primary care physician, which probably keeps many from getting preventive care.
Furthermore, a compromised ability to work could lead to higher unemployment rates and lower worker productivity. In the most adverse projection,
millennials could expect to lose more than $4,500 a year in per capita income compared with
Generation X at the same age, according to the report.
Individuals who are already struggling would be hit hardest, "potentially exacerbating instances of income inequality and contributing to a vicious cycle of even greater prevalence of behavioral and physical health conditions," the report's authors wrote.
Zandi commented that the reasons a generation that is often chided for its obsession with wellness and self-care get so unhealthy could be that economic prosperity and
health are closely linked, and
millennials came of age at a time of economic crisis.
Younger
millennials watched their parents lose their homes and jobs, potentially setting them up for lasting psychological problems and making them vulnerable to substance abuse and the opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, older
millennials were entering the workforce saddled with student loan debt and unable to find jobs. Those who found work started at a low salary and have since struggled to advance their pay.
Millennials in the most developed economies now have an average net worth of $90,000, well below the $130,000 of
Generation X at the same age.
Zandi added,"Ten years in, many of the
millennials are struggling to catch up." Zandi urged the employers,
health system administrators, and insurance executives at the event to work together to improve care for younger generations. "It's not a crisis level, but if the trend continues, we will be calling this a crisis," he said. "Something needs to change."
The start of the global economic recession would also help exacerbate the situation, he warned.
