African-Americans and Health

Life Expectancy and Causes of Death

• Life expectancy tables are calculated at three periods during a lifetime -- at birth, at age 65, and at 75. As people age, the racial and ethnic differentials begin to diminish.

• Life expectancy at birth is perhaps the single best indicator of a population's health. It has increased for all groups in the United States over the past two decades. However, black men's life expectancy actually dropped between 1985 and 1994, and white women experienced only marginal gains in the 1990s. Both black men and women born in 1999 are expected to live to age 71.4, about 6 years less than whites (77.3).

• Black men remain the group with the lowest life expectancy. Those born in 1999 are expected to live to the age of 67.8, which is about 7 years less than for comparable white men (74.6). Among women born in 1999, blacks are expected to live to the age of 74.7, and whites to age 79.9.

• Blacks who were 65 years old in 1999 were expected to live an additional 16 years, while whites were expected to live 17.8 more years. The racial gaps in life expectancies were less than a year among those who were 75 years old in 1999: black men were expected to live an additional 9.2 years and white men an additional 10 years, while black and white women were expected to live an additional 12.1 and 11.1 years, respectively.

• The three leading causes of death for African Americans in 1980 and 1998-- diseases of the heart, malignant neoplasms (cancer), and cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) -- were also the leading causes for all persons in the United States. However, African Americans died from these diseases at higher rates than any other racial/ethnic group, and the gaps between blacks and whites in deaths from heart disease and cancer actually grew during the period.

• Death rates for diseases of the heart. In 1998, 272.4 persons per 100,000 in the total population died from heart disease. Black men died from heart disease at about 1.5 times the rate (407.8) as the total population. The rate for black women (291.1) was 34% higher than for white women (217.6). Death rates for heart disease dropped substantially between 1980 and 1998, but the declines for black men (27%) and women (23%) were less than for white men (38%)and women (31%).

• Death rates for malignant neoplasms. The cancer death rate for black men (343.1per 100,000) in 1998 was about 39% higher than the rate for white men (246.9); it was about 19% higher for black women (200) than for white women (167.7). In contrast to the declines in deaths from heart disease and strokes, death rates for cancer dropped only modestly for black (3%) and white (7%) men. They also declined for white women by 4%, but increased slightly by 6% for black women.

• Death rates for cerebrovascular diseases. Between 1980 and 1998, death rates for strokes declined greatly for black (39%) and white (42%) men and also declined for black (11%) and white (7%) women. Nevertheless the death rate in 1998 for black men (86.1 per 100,000) remained higher than that for white men (57.5), and that for black women (75.2) was 33% higher than that for white women (56.4).

• By 1998, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) had become the seventh leading cause of death among African Americans. HIV was not among the top ten leading causes for African Americans in 1980. [link to HIV fact-sheet that is in progress]

 

References

National Center for Health Statistics. 1998. Health, United States, 1998 With Socioeconomic Status and Health Chartbook (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics).

National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2001 With Urban and Rural Health Chartbook. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus01.pdf

 

Prepared by Cassandra Cantave, Dietra Lee, and Roderick Harrison for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Updated November 2001.

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