Medical News.Net In a recent study published in The Lancet, researchers updated their analysis from the original Eight Americas study to reflect current life expectancy disparities in the United States.
What is the Eight Americas study?
The Eight Americas study was published nearly two decades ago to provide crucial insights into life expectancy inequities in the United States. Herein, the U.S. population was categorized into eight groups based on race, geographical location, urbanicity, income per capita, and homicide rates.
In 2001, the Eight Americas study reported gaps of 12.8 years for females and 15.4 years for males in life expectancy, with the observed disparities in mortality particularly large for young and middle-aged males.
In the current study, scientists update and expand the original Eight Americas study by examining trends in life expectancy between 2000 and 2021 for ten Americas categorized by age, sex, and age group. The ten Americas included analogs to the original eight groups, as well as two additional groups comprising the U.S. Hispanic or Latino population.
Important observations
The ten categories of Americas included Asian individuals, Latino individuals in other counties, White, Asian, and American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) individuals in other counties, White individuals in non-metropolitan and low-income Northlands, Latino individuals in the Southwest, Black individuals in other counties, Black individuals in highly segregated metropolitan areas, White individuals in low-income Appalachia and Lower Mississippi Valley, Black individuals in the non-metropolitan and low-income South, and AIAN individuals in the West.