MEXICO CITY — A new study suggests Mexico’s drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation’s male life expectancy to drop by several months.
Experts say the violence from 2005-2010 partly reversed decades of steady gains. It was the first time life expectancy in Mexico declined since the country’s 1910-1917 revolution.
The study published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs says “the increase in homicides is at the heart” of the phenomenon, though deaths due to diabetes may have also played a role.
The study’s authors found that life expectancy for males in Mexico dropped by about six-tenths of a year from 2000-2010.
The decline largely occurred from 2005-2010. Mexico’s offensive against drug cartels started in 2006.
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