‘Deaths of despair’ among working-class white men in the rust belt

Centered in the rust belt, deaths of despair are a national scourge. Since 2000, working-class white Americans have defied demographic trends by experiencing declines in life expectancy. In the last decade, according to the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health, nearly 2 million Ohioans have died from “deaths of despair.” That makes the Buckeye state second only to West Virginia in this category. Tragically, the Ohio Valley leads the nation in the rise of deaths for those between 25 and 65. Individually, they are senseless. Families are left to ponder how their child died a drug-addled death in a...