The study modelled annual all-cause mortality and survey-measured despair among US adults aged 45-54 between 1999 and 2015. Mortality rose by 7.49 per 100,000 among midlife white adults overall and by 51.4 per 100,000 among those with low education, while despair prevalence rose by a similar amount among white and Black adults; the change in despair among white adults showed no association with the change in mortality (-0.12 per 100,000, 95% UI -0.54 to 0.29).
Why it is interesting: The educational gradient in midlife US mortality is reproduced, but the despair mechanism usually invoked to explain it is not supported.