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According to a report by the Congressional Research Service (PDF hosted on Cloudflare; archived copy here),
Although life expectancy has generally been increasing over time in the United States, researchers have long documented that it is lower for individuals with lower socioeconomic status (SES) compared with individuals with higher SES. Recent studies provide evidence that this gap has widened in recent decades. For example, a 2015 study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found that for men born in 1930, individuals in the highest income quintile (top 20%) could expect to live 5.1 years longer at age 50 than men in the lowest income quintile. This gap has increased significantly over time. Among men born in 1960, those in the top income quintile could expect to live 12.7 years longer than men in the bottom income quintile. This NAS study finds similar patterns for women: the life expectancy gap between the bottom and top income quintiles of women expanded from 3.9 years for the 1930 birth cohort to 13.6 years for the 1960 birth cohort.
Apparently, all the advances in medical science and healthy living that occurred during this rolling 30-year interval were visited upon the rich a lot more than on the poor.
According to a different study (open; DOI 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.0918; archived copy here) in JAMA Internal Medicine,
[...] inequalities in life expectancy among counties are large and growing, and much of the variation in life expectancy can be explained by differences in socioeconomic and race/ethnicity factors, behavioral and metabolic risk factors, and health care factors.
In 2014, there was a spread of 20.1 years between the counties with the longest and shortest typical life spans based on life expectancy at birth.
—NPR
additional coverage:
- Boston Globe (about CRS report)
- WPVI-TV (about JAMA study)
- Time (about JAMA study; Javascript required)
- WESA-FM (about JAMA study)
- The Park Record (about JAMA study)
(Score: 2, Disagree) by slap on Sunday May 28 2017, @05:49PM (2 children)
"black life expectancy is lower than white life expectancy"
From the report:
"Life expectancy at age 65 in 2014 was 18.2 years for blacks (so an expected age of death at 83.2 [65+18.2=83.2]) and 19.3 years
for whites (so an expected age of death at 84.3 years [65+19.3=84.3])"
Also,
"CBO compares today’s life expectancy and lifetime earnings to life expectancy and earnings in the year 2039, and determines that,
in 2014, a 65-year-old man in the upper lifetime earnings quintile is expected to live more than three years longer than someone with the
same observable characteristics in the lowest lifetime earnings quintile. A similar trend exists for women: in 2014, a 65-year-old woman
in the upper lifetime earnings quintile would be expected to live more than one year longer than this same woman in the lowest lifetime
earnings quintile."
The first quote indicates a 1.1 year difference in the age of death between blacks and whites who have reached the age of 65; the second one indicates
that lifetime earnings has a somewhat larger impact on the age of death for people who have reached the age of 65.
I had always assumed that what the poster Idiot_king said was right - just for the heck of it I looked it up and found out that we were both wrong.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday May 28 2017, @07:27PM
Well, more accurately, you likely were right. But things are changing. As a recent Washington Post article [washingtonpost.com] noted, the racial gap in life expectancy has been closing for a while. Though it is important to note that your first stat has to do with people aged 65 and over: yes, the mortality gap has nearly disappeared there, but it still exists for younger age groups. For blacks who make to 65, there isn't much difference in outcomes, but there's still a lot of younger deaths due to heart disease, diabetes, etc. (Obviously a significant part of that is also related to poverty rates; poor whites frequently suffer from similar issues.) Even there, though, the differences are fading a bit as more younger white people overdose, commit suicide, etc., coupled with improved healthcare etc. for African Americans.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday May 28 2017, @11:11PM
The quote from idiot_king and the quote from the CBO report agree.