Racial inequality in life expectancy improving

A report in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that the gap in life expectancy between black and white Americans has improved in recent years.

Racial inequality in health care and health outcomes is one of the most important, and persistent, legacies of our nation’s history of slavery and racial discrimination. On average, black citizens of the Unites States can expect to live several years less than their white counterparts.

However, the racial gap in life expectancy has been narrowing at a surprising rate in recent years. Between 1993 and 2003, the gap declined by about two years for men and one year for women. This new report shows that the gap continued to decline between 2003 and 2008, narrowing by about another year for both men and women.

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