On the show
Why life expectancy stopped improving in some wealthy countries
Life expectancy broadly recovered after the pandemic, but some developed nations diverged from their peers. That gap is concentrated in working-age adults.
Why it is hard to measure
- The divergence is driven by causes of death that are behavioural and social as much as clinical.
- Substance use, cardiometabolic disease, and unequal access to care all contribute.
- Mortality records tell you what people died of, never what was happening in their lives beforehand.
- Researchers increasingly pair biological measures with social ones, because neither explains the pattern alone.
Questions only a conversation can ask
“Think of the last time you put off seeing a doctor. What tipped the decision, and what would have tipped it the other way?”
“Who would notice within a week if your health got worse? Tell me about that person.”
Where SamSurveyor fits
The social half of that picture has to come from people. A conversational survey gathers it in their own words, at a scale interviews cannot reach.
Hear this discussed
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