Life expectancy rates in the United States have been increasing for most of the past 60 years. But a new study has confirmed changes. It found that U.S. life expectancy rates decreased for three years in a row after 2014. The main cause appears to be higher rates of death among middle-aged Americans. A report on the study appeared last week in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. The report notes that, among working-age Americans, death rates for all causes increased between 2010 and 2017. The main reasons were drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and organ system diseases, such as diabetes.