Life expectancy gap between rich, poor grows

March 22, 2008 at 11:11PM

WASHINGTON - New government research has found "large and growing" disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.

Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap.

One of the researchers, Gopal Singh, a demographer at the Department of Health and Human Services, said "the growing inequalities in life expectancy" mirrored trends in infant mortality and in death from heart disease and certain cancers.

Singh said last week that federal officials had found "widening socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy" at birth and at every age level.

While researchers do not agree on an explanation for the widening gap, they have suggested many reasons, including these:

People who are affluent and better educated are more likely to take advantage of newly discovered ways to detect and treat many forms of cancer and heart disease.

Smoking has declined more rapidly among people with greater education and income.

Lower-income people are more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods, to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior and to eat unhealthy food.

Lower-income people are less likely to have health insurance, so they are less likely to receive checkups, screenings, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs and other types of care.

NEW YORK TIMES

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