New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in U.S.
Poverty in the U.S. is often associated with deprivations in housing, employment, and education. Now, a study published by the Journal of American Medicine offers, in unprecedented geographic detail, another stark reality: Poor people live shorter lives, too.
MIT researchers showed that in the U.S., the richest 1 percent of men lives 14.6 years longer on average than the poorest 1 percent of men, while among women in those wealth percentiles, the difference is 10.1 years on average.
This gap is also growing rapidly: Over roughly the last 15 years, life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women who are among the top 5 percent of income earners in the U.S., but that increase was just 0.32 and 0.04 years for men and women in the bottom 5 percent of the income tables.
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Cara joined TriMed Media in 2016 and is currently a Senior Writer for Clinical Innovation & Technology. Originating from Detroit, Michigan, she holds a Bachelors in Health Communications from Grand Valley State University.