Life expectancy racial gap shrinks, study shows
A new study released Tuesday shows that the gap of life expectancy between whites and blacks is shrinking. White people in America have lived longer than blacks typically...
A new study released Tuesday shows that the gap of life expectancy between whites and blacks is shrinking. White people in America have lived longer than blacks typically, but new data shows that blacks have been dying less from AIDS and heart disease, while whites have been dying more from unintentional injuries that include mainly poisonings and drug overdoses, according to researchers. “For the most part, blacks are making small but important gains in terms of life expectancy,” said Sam Harper of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, the lead author of the new report, published as a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Reuters reports:
Whites in the United States have typically lived longer on average than blacks, but a new study released on Tuesday suggests that gap in life expectancy may be shrinking.
The shift appears to be because fewer African Americans are dying of AIDS and heart disease, but also because more whites are dying in early and mid-adulthood from unintentional injuries – mainly poisonings, including prescription drug overdoses, researchers said.
“For the most part, blacks are making small but important gains in terms of life expectancy,” said Sam Harper of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, the lead author of the new report, published as a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“There’s still quite a large gap in life expectancy for men and women, and that gap is still much larger than we would like it to be,” Harper told Reuters Health.
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