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Senior Citizen Longevity & Statistics
U.S. Life Expectancy Not Increasing for Everyone –
Just Best Educated, Males
Those with less than high school education and
females don’t age so well in Harvard study
 March 11, 2008 – Yes, we are living longer in the
U.S. but if you thought that applied to everyone, you are in for a
surprise. Now we learn this expanse in life expectancy only applies to
those with more than a high school education. And, women fare worse than
men – the less educated women actually show a slight decline in life
expectancy at age 25.
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The new data from Harvard Medical School and
Harvard University demonstrate that individuals with more than 12 years
of education have significantly longer life expectancy than those who
never went beyond high school. Overall in the groups studied, as of
2000, better educated at age 25 could expect to live to age 82; for less
educated, 75.
“We like to think that as we as a country get
healthier, everyone benefits,” says David Cutler, dean for social
sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and
study co-author.
“Here we’ve found that you can have a rising tide
that only lifts half the boats—and the ones lifted are the ones doing
better to begin with.”
The research, which was conducted by Cutler and
Ellen Meara, assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard
Medical School, appears in the March/April edition of the journal Health
Affairs.
Over the years, much attention has been paid to
mortality rates based on socio-economic status, but less attention has
been paid to recent trends in life expectancy, mortality, and education
level.
To understand recent mortality trends, Meara and
Cutler combined death certificate data with census population estimates
and data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Restricting
analyses to whites and non-Hispanic blacks, the team created two
separate data sets, one covering 1981-1988, and the other 1990-2000.
In both data sets, life expectancy rose for
individuals who had more than 12 years of education. For those with 12
years or less, it plateaued.
For example, comparing the 1980s to the 1990s,
better educated individuals experienced nearly a year and a half of
increased life expectancy, while the less educated experienced only half
a year.
For 1990-2000, life expectancy rose an additional
1.6 years for better educated, while remaining fixed for the less
educated.
In addition, when the data was broken down by
gender, the researchers found that women fared worse than men. Less
educated women, regardless of race, experienced a slight decline in life
expectancy at age 25.
“Although improvements in health often occur more
rapidly within some groups than others, it is surprising that life
expectancy remained so flat for the less educated during periods when
others enjoyed dramatic gains in longevity,” says Meara.
The researchers found that much of the mortality
gap can be attributed to smoking related illnesses.
Just two diseases usually caused by smoking, lung
cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (which comprises
chronic bronchitis and emphysema), account for 20 percent of growing
mortality differences in the 1990s.
Many other illnesses like heart disease and other
types of cancer, also count smoking as contributing factors. The
importance of smoking is not surprising, since other data has shown that
the less educated have not given up smoking to the same extent that
those with more education have. (Other causes of death examined were
diseases of the heart, non-lung cancers, stroke, and unintentional
injuries.)
“There’s a bit of complacency in the fact that year
after year lifespan goes up,” says Cutler. “Our data shows us that we
need to start thinking about doing much more for the groups at the
bottom if we don’t want to see these gaps grow.”
Editor’s Notes:
This research was funded by the National Institute
on Aging and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Original report written by David Cameron
Full Citation: Health Affairs, March/April 2008,
Volume 27, Number 2
“The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes in Mortality and Life
Expectancy, by Education, 1981-2000”
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