Black Americans Lose Twice As Many Years of Life to Guns As White Americans Do, Study Says

Firearms are responsible for a more than four-year loss of life expectancy among black Americans — roughly double the firearm-related loss seen among white Americans, according to a new study published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. According to recent federal data, the average American in 2017 could expect to live until age 78.6, a slight decline from recent years’ estimates. But death rates vary widely depending on demographic, that report showed. The death rate among black men, for example, was calculated at around 1,083 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to about 885 for white men, 728 for black women and 642 for white women. The new paper, believed to be the first to quantify firearm-related loss of life for black and white Americans of different ages, helps to partially explain those vastly different numbers. Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data collected between 2000 and 2016, a team led by researchers from the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health found that firearms shave 4.14 years off the total life expectancy of black Americans and 2.23 years off the life expectancy of white Americans. In 2015, the most recent year with published race-specific CDC estimates, a white American could expect to live to age 78.9, while a black American could expect to live to age 75.5. (Across the board, women tend to live longer than men: 81.3 years versus 76.6 years for white Americans, and 78.5 years versus 72.2 years for black...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime onetime public health Source Type: news