Ending Racial Disparities in Health Care Could Save Five Times More Lives Than Technological Advances
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Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care
Washington, DC
http://www.graham-center.org/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2004
WASHINGTON � Lives saved by reducing the mortality rate of African-Americans to the rate of whites are five times those that could be saved by improvements in medical technology. So said the authors of �The Health Impact of Resolving Racial Disparities: An Analysis of US Mortality Data,� published in the December edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
Using data from 1991 to 2000, the authors estimated that 886,202 deaths could have been averted had the death rate of African Americans and whites been comparable during this time period. The authors calculated that technological advances during those years averted 176,633 deaths.
See more information on African American Health on MedlinePlus at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/africanamericanhealth.html