Report: Racial and geographic disparities impact life expectancy in the US

A new study shows that life expectancy in the United States varies by more than 20 years depending on where a person lives or their race.

Authors of the report, which was published on Thursday in The lancet, divided the country into “ten Americas.” Group classification was based on variables such as income, race and location. Life expectancy figures come from the National Vital Statistics System and the National Center for Health Statistics between 2000 and 2021.

“The scale and scope of health disparities in American society are truly alarming in a country with the wealth and resources of the United States,” said Dr. Christopher JL Murray, author, professor and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). at the University of Washington said in a statement.

The life expectancy difference between groups was 12.6 years in 2000, reached 13.9 years in 2010, and reached 15.6 years in 2019. After the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it increased to 20.4 years.

In 2000, black Americans living in rural, low-income counties in the South (known as America 9) and black Americans living in highly segregated cities (known as America 7) had the lowest life expectancy (around 70.5 years in both groups). . Asian Americans (in America 1) had the highest life expectancy, averaging 83.1 years.

Between 2000 and 2010, life expectancy increased for all Americans except American Indians and Alaska Natives living in the West (America 10).

During the same period, the three black Americas (6, 7 and 9) saw the largest increases in life expectancy, up to 3.7 years.

“It is likely that long-term improvements in education for black children and young adults in recent decades, as well as declines in murder rates and deaths from HIV/AIDS—causes of death that have disproportionately affected black Americans—may have contributed.” “Notable Gains for Black Americans,” Thomas Bollyky, another writer from the Council of Foreign Relations, also said in the statement.

From 2010 to 2019, improvements in life expectancy at birth stalled for the three Black Americas (and all other populations), reflecting increases in drug overdose deaths and homicides and a slowing in the decline in deaths from cardiovascular disease could be due to an increase in obesity, the authors noted.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in life expectancy across America while widening racial disparities in life expectancy. Black Americans living in highly segregated cities (America 7) and Black Americans living in rural, low-income counties in the South (America 9) were expected to have an average life expectancy of 74.9 and 74.9 respectively in 2019. 72.5 years old; this fell by about four years to 68.5 in 2020. For white, Asian and AIAN people living in other counties (America 3), the corresponding decline was 1.4 years – from 79.3 years in 2019 to 77.9 years in 2020.