A new study reveals that economic inequality affects life expectancy in the US, with the wealth gap resulting in the largest survival discrepancies compared to Europe. Analyzing data from over 73,000 adults aged 50 to 85, researchers found America's poorest quartile experienced the lowest survival rates among all quartiles in the study. While access to healthcare partially explains disparities, it fails to account for differences between wealthy Americans and their European counterparts, suggesting other systemic issues, including dietary and environmental factors, require further investigation to improve health outcomes in the US.
The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from the systemic issues in the US contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet or environmental hazards.
While less access to health care and weaker social structures can explain the gap between the wealthy and poor in the US, it doesn’t explain the differences between the wealthy in the US and the wealthy in Europe.
If we want to improve health in the US, we need to better understand the underlying factors that contribute to these differences-particularly amongst similar socioeconomic groups-and why they translate to different health outcomes across nations.
Collection
[
|
...
]