CDC: Racial health disparities improving, still persist

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that although the gap in life expectancy between black and white Americans is at its narrowest since the federal government started systematically tracking it in the 1930s, a difference of nearly four years remains (Source: “Racial Disparities in Life Spans Narrow, but Persist,” New York Times, July 18, 2013).

According to the report (pdf, 8 pages), higher rates of death from heart disease, cancer, homicide, diabetes and infant mortality accounted for more than half the racial disparity in 2010. Still, blacks have made notable gains in life expectancy in recent decades that demographers say reflect improvements in medical treatment as well as in the socioeconomic position of blacks in America. Life expectancy at birth was up by 17 percent since 1970, far higher than the 11 percent increase for whites over the same period.