70-year study finds widening gap despite longer life expectancy for both racial groups.
By Anna Gibbs, Harvard Gazette,
Americans are living longer than ever. And the disparity in overall mortality rates between Black and white Americans has narrowed since the 1950s. Among infants, however, the gap has widened, with Black infants dying at twice the rate of white infants, a new study reports.
A team of researchers collected and analyzed data across the U.S. from 1950 to 2019 to determine how mortality rates and disparities have changed over time.
In general, life expectancy has improved for both Black Americans (from 60.5 years in the 1950s to 76 years in the 2010s, a 20.4 percent increase) and white Americans (from 69 years in the 1950s to 79.3 years in the 2010s, a 13 percent rise), according to the new research. The racial gap has also improved, though Black adults still have an 18 percent higher mortality rate.
The picture for Black infants is far bleaker. While mortality rates for both Black and white infants have improved, the disparity between races has worsened. The mortality rate for Black infants was 92 percent higher than for white infants in the 1950s. Today the difference is 115 percent. Medical conditions during pregnancy were the leading cause of excess death in the 2010s.
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COMMENT: The demographics estimate that about 5 million Black babies died preventable deaths. The long term trend is clear, persistent and was preventable. This study does not go into the causes, but we must recognize the powerful negative impact of the social determinants of health, which in this case is a euphemism for outright racism. This is especially dramatic in the unhealthy states below the Mason-Dixon Line. It is important to note that this happened during times of a relatively well functioning federal government with various mitigating and remedial programs. Under the new federal policies and programs being rolled out now, you can bet matters will sadly get worse. Current chaos and disruption should be used to provide the opportunity for a radical restructuring of federal health care policy to provide guaranteed, universal medical and health care services at the least for all moms and kids.
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