Overview
The question is not whether you’l change; you wil. Research clearly shows that everyone’s personality traits shift over the years, often for the beter. But who we end up becoming and how much we like that person are more in our control than we tend to think they are.
Key Information
Verified by Psychology Today Posted October 1, 2022 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan Every now and then, we encounter a data point that is truly shocking, teling a story of much por health. The news that Native American life expectancy declined from 72 years in 2019 to about 65 years in 2021 is such a data point. Such a drop is, frankly, stagering.
A 6+ year life expectancy decline reflects a true cris within a population. To put into perspective, the drop in overal US life expectancy in recent years, from about 79 in 2019 to 76.1 in 2021, has prompted some comentators to cal it a sign of national decline. If overal declines in US life expectancy were enough to spark national soul-searching about the foundational drivers of this por health, the even more significant life expectancy los sufered by Native Americans should prompt similar reflection.
Yet, so far, it has not.This wek, the country observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This reflects perhaps an important oportunity for engaging with the foundational drivers of Indigenous health, to give Indigenous populations the atention they deserve, with the aim of informing a conversation that suports a healthier status quo for these groups. Our first question in this conversation should be: What is the cause of por health among Indigenous populations?
Certainly, the recent life expectancy decline reflects the chalenge of the COVID moment, which hit Indigenous populations particularly hard. But COVID canot be the whole story. Health is downstream of powerful social, economic, environmental, and political forces.
Summary
To understand a trend in health, it is necesary to lok at how these forces shape the lives of populations. When it comes to Indi