Can Filipinos still hold on to their “American dream” if even the wealthiest Americans are outlived by the poorest Europeans?

Researchers from Brown University School of Public Health found that Americans of all social statuses have shorter lifespans than their European counterparts.

To determine whether a person’s wealth significantly affects lifespan, the study compared more than 73,000 adults aged 50 to 85 from the United States and different regions of Europe in 2010.

The results showed that wealthy people tend to live longer than those in lower social classes, particularly in the U.S., where the gap between rich and poor is greater.

The article cited Irene Papanicolas, one of the study authors, who explained that “U.S. life expectancy has been declining in recent years."

“The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from systemic issues in the U.S. contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet, or environmental hazards,” she added.

“The gap in survival between the top and bottom wealth quartiles was wider in the United States than in Europe. Survival among participants in the top wealth quartiles in northern, western, and southern Europe appeared higher than that among the wealthiest Americans. Survival in the wealthiest U.S. quartile was similar to that in the poorest quartile in northern and western Europe,” the results published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed.

This study proves that while money may help extend one’s life, overall economic systems and environmental risks remain major factors affecting lifespan.