A disturbing health trend is on the rise among younger generations

With all this in mind, one would assume that younger generations are healthier today than their elders were at the same age. After all, rewind the clock by 50 or 60 years and cigarette use was far more widespread and mental health was a taboo topic, to name a few examples.

However, a surprising and concerning new study just released by Ohio State University reports the exact opposite. Members of both Generation X (born 1965-80) and Generation Y (born 1981-99) are displaying a more pronounced decline in both physical and mental health in comparison to how their parents and grandparents fared at the same age.

More specifically, younger individuals show poorer physical health, more frequent engagement in activities like alcohol consumption and smoking, and higher levels of both anxiety and depression.

“The worsening health profiles we found in Gen X and Gen Y is alarming,” says lead study author Hui Zheng, a professor of sociology at OSU. “If we don’t find a way to slow this trend, we are potentially going to see an expansion of morbidity and mortality rates in the United States as these generations get older.”

If this trend continues, study authors predict the United States may see a big uptick in chronic diseases and other health ailments as these younger generations continue to age and grow older. For now, many of these developments are taking place in private or going unnoticed, but that won’t be the case forever.

“People in Gen X and Gen Y are still relatively young, so we may be underestimating their health problems,” Zheng explains. “When they get older and chronic diseases become more prevalent, we’ll have a better view of their health status.”

Due to these findings, it isn’t a stretch to foresee the U.S. in the future with an even lower average life expectancy and higher rates of disability and morbidity.

“Our results suggest that without effective policy interventions, these disturbing trends won’t be temporary, but a battle we’ll have to continue to fight.” Zheng adds.

Data originally collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-2016) and the National Health Interview Survey (1997-2018) was used for this research. Those projects included 62,833 and 625,221 respondents respectively.

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Health was assessed across a wide spectrum of considerations, including risk factors linked to metabolic syndromes such as BMI, blood pressure, waist size, and cholesterol levels. Metabolic syndrome is a grouping of various health developments that increase one’s risk of heart problems, stroke, diabetes, etc. Chronic inflammation markers were accounted for as well.

Generally, that analysis concluded that physical health measures have been getting worse and worse since Baby Boomers. However, Caucasians are experiencing more health issues linked to metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, high BMI), while African-Americans have dealt with more increases in chronic inflammation. For what it’s worth, study authors say obesity is likely linked to the higher rates of metabolic syndrome.

The story isn’t very different when it comes to lifestyle choices. Somewhat surprisingly, the chances of heavy drinking among men have steadily increased over the past decades. Moreover, the chances of an individual having ever smoked have increased from one generation to the next. How could that be possible, though? Tons of research suggests rates of smoking continue to decline.

“One possibility is that people in older generations are quitting smoking in larger numbers while younger generations are more likely to start smoking,” Zheng speculates. “But we need further research to see if that is correct.”

Beyond just physical health, findings regarding mental health were just as troubling. Researchers report depression and anxiety levels from generation to generation have been increasing steadily since the War Babies generation (born 1943-45).

“The declining health trends in recent generations is a shocking finding,” Zheng notes. “It suggests we may have a challenging health prospect in the United State in coming years.”