This research article is highlighted

Running Head: LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Summary of the news article
According to the article death rates in the United States has been declined from that is
observed during the year before 2014. This article mentioned the expectancy of birth in 2018 was
78.7 years. This amount was considerably 0.1 year extended from last year. The graphical
representation of the years 2007 and 1999 informs that the death rate is decreased from the older
one. In the recent study, the death from drug overdose is 4.1 percent. In most of the cases the
death involves the use of natural or semi-synthetic opioids (Chatterjee, 2020). It is also
mentioned that the death causing of overdose of synthetic opioids increased in 10 percent in
between the years 2017 and 2018. This article also mentioned the use of other drugs including
cocaine. According to the article, the rate of suicidal death is present but lesser in amount.
However, the editors consider suicides as one of the leading cause of death prevailing in the
United States. The study mentions the national strategy for prevention of suicides. It is a center
for the people with suicidal crisis and provide health related training with health workers. There
are some group of critics exhibit an unwillingness to consider the suicides as a public health
problem. However, the article concluded with a positive statement of taking initiative to bring
the nation’s progress.
Summary of the research article
Dart (2015) reflects on the similar topic of drug abuse and its connection with death rates
in the research article. According to the research, the death rate in the United States increased
from 2015 in the year 2016. It includes all the categories namely drug abuse and the rate of
suicides. This research article is highlighted the overuse of opioids and synthetic opioids. It
considers the overdose of drugs as the reason of increasing number of death as reported by the

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National Vital Statistics System (Dart et al., 2015). The research identified some significant areas
to exhibit the death causing drug overdose namely Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida,
Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, and New York. Apart from drug abuse there are several other
reasons that contribute to increase the number of death in the United States. The other reasons
are overdose of alcohol and the rate of suicides in the state. The paper compares the two
consecutive years 2015 and 2016. There are evidences about the decreased death rate comparing
the entire tenure of 1990. The newspaper article also mentioned that the rate of death comparing
to 1990 is decreased in the recent times of 2018.
Description of the research
The research work was grounded on the increased use of prescribed opioid medicines and
the link with death rates in the United States. The study is based on the comparison of death rates
of United States. The method used for the Research includes some programs from Researched
Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System as mode of
describing the nature of diversion and abuse of the medicinal products of six different prescribed
opioid analgesics. These are tramadol, fentanyl, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine. The
programs including investigator of drug-diversion, poison centers, college students, and
substance-abuse treatment centers.
The research results into comparing the years of 2011 and 2013, the death rate is
decreased in the later year. However the RADARS programs reported increased number of
opioid abuse from the years 2002 to 2010. This rate was decreased in the year 2013 and
significantly rise in the year 2016. However, the current study reflects that United States is
making progress in terms of increasing the quality of lifestyle.

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Comparing and contrasting the news article and research article
In this section, the study will provide a comparative study of the mentioned news article
and scholarly article. The similarities observed in both the two papers is the common topic that is
effect of drug overdose on the lifespan development. As a common factor both the article
mentioned the abuse of opioids and synthetic opioid. Both the studies mentioned the abuse of
prescribed opioids in the entire lifestyle of the United States population. There are contrasting
elements in both the two articles. The newspaper article presents the entire report with some
graphical representation. Along with this, the article mentioned the entire tenure of 1990 to 2018
to increase the reliability. On the other hand, the research article only presents data from some
specific years with lesser or no graphical presentation. However, the common result for both the
article is decreasing rate of death compared to the years of 1990s in United States (Jones et al.,
2013).

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References
Chatterjee, R. (2020). Life Expectancy Rose Slightly In 2018, As Drug Overdose Deaths
Fell. NPR. Retrieved from:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/30/801016600/life-expectancy-rose-slightly-in-
2018-as-drug-overdose-deaths-fell
Dart, R. C., Surratt, H. L., Cicero, T. J., Parrino, M. W., Severtson, S. G., Bucher-Bartelson, B.,
& Green, J. L. (2015). Trends in opioid analgesic abuse and mortality in the United
States. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(3), 241-248. DOI:
10.1056/NEJMsa1406143
Jones, C. M., Mack, K. A., & Paulozzi, L. J. (2013). Pharmaceutical overdose deaths, united
states, 2010. Jama, 309(7), 657-659. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm675152e1