The United States is far behind other advanced nations when it comes to infant mortality and the life expectancy of its citizens, according to a comprehensive review of global health statistics, published in the October edition of Lancet. Diabetes, drugs, smoking, high blood pressure and guns contribute to disappointing statistics in this new global report.

The United States isn't meeting the high expectations set by the country's wealth and the amount it spends on health care, mainly because not all U.S. citizens benefit equally from their nation's advantages, said study co-author Dr. Mohsen Naghavi from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"This comes from inequality in access to health care, along with other social and economic factors," he said. Infant mortality in the United States amounted in 2015 to six deaths out of every 1,000 kids younger than 5, while the average for all high-income nations combined was about five deaths per 1,000, researchers said.

In U.S. men and women also had poorer life expectancy, compared with the rest of the developed world. U.S. men had an average life expectancy of 76.7 years in 2015, with about 66.8 of those years spent in good health. Life expectancy for U.S. women was 81.5 years on average, with 69.5 years spent in good health. In contrast, all high-income countries combined had an average 78.1 years of life expectancy for men and 83.4 years for women, the study reported. Years lived in good health averaged 68.9 for men and 72.2 for women. The numbers show that the United States needs to rethink its approach to health care. Researchers found that drug abuse and diabetes are causing a disproportionate amount of ill health and early death in the United States, compared with other countries.

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