Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Life expectancy 

The Big Question asks about a new study showing us 42nd in life expectancy. (Powerline had this on Monday.) One possible answer: Too many preemies. Another: African Americans have lower life expectancy even with access to health care.
African-Americans have, for reasons no one quite understands, higher levels of premature birth, infant mortality, and low-birth-weight babies, and birth complications. This is true even when obvious factors like income, prenatal care, and maternal health and age are controlled for, and substantially lowers America's performance in the statistics.
It also turns out that if a black male lives in a rich neighborhood, his survival rate is 40% higher than a black male of the same income level living in a poor neighborhood. That suggests it's not to do with health insurance but of living in risky areas.

I believe this is the Census data.

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