So prevalent is the combined problem of early mortality and morbidity that there is a statistic for it: the disability-adjusted life year, or DALY, which measures the years of life lost from both premature death and poor state of health. The Russian DALY is the highest in Europe, with twenty-five lost years of healthy life per person. In Israel, it is an impressive ten years. In the United States, the number is a dismal twenty-three.
