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    doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.350 Health Aff March 2008 vol. 27 no. 2 350-360

The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes In Mortality And Life Expectancy, By Education, 1981–2000

    Ellen R. Meara ,
    Seth Richards and
    David M. Cutler

+ Author Affiliations

    Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts

    Ellen Meara ( meara@hcp.med.harvard.edu )

Abstract

In this paper we examine educational disparities in mortality and life expectancy among non-Hispanic blacks and whites in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite increased attention and substantial dollars directed to groups with low socioeconomic status, within race and gender groups, the educational gap in life expectancy is rising, mainly because of rising differentials among the elderly. With the exception of black males, all recent gains in life expectancy at age twenty-five have occurred among better-educated groups, raising educational differentials in life expectancy by 30 percent. Differential trends in smoking-related diseases explain at least 20 percent of this trend.
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    Closing The Gap Should Be Getting Easier
        Prajesh N. Chhanabhai
    Health Aff published online March 11, 2008
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    doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.350 Health Aff March 2008 vol. 27 no. 2 350-360

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