Violence causes drop in male life expectancy

A new study suggests that Mexico's drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation's male life expectancy to drop by several months.

Experts say the violence from 2005 to 2010 partly reversed decades of steady gains, noting that homicide rates increased from 9.5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2005 to more than 22 in 2010. That has since declined to about 16 per 100,000 in 2014.

The study published on Tuesday in the American journal Health Affairs says "the increase in homicides is at the heart" of the phenomenon, though deaths due to diabetes may have also played a role.