The popular sentiment that Americans’ health is on a hellish downward spiral may not be true — or at least not entirely — according to a new study of global death data. From 2010 to 2019, the risk of dying from a chronic disease between birth and age 80 declined in most countries, including the U.S.

The catch? Those improvements got smaller over time. In the U.S., that downward trend slowed down from 2010 to 2019 as compared to the previous decade, according to a consortium of researchers who published their findings in The Lancet on Wednesday. Many other nations had similar slowdowns in progress, but the U.S. was one of the worst among its peers.

The U.S. also saw a “rare phenomenon” among peer nations: A rise in chronic disease mortality among 20-to-45-year-olds, the authors found. T

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