In 2000, a black, working-aged resident of a poor neighborhood was significantly more likely to die than a white American — a situation that essentially remained unchanged from 20 years earlier, according to a study in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
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Brian Smedley, Ph.D., vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, said that these findings spotlight the importance of community factors. “If you live in a high-poverty area, your risk of early death rises substantially,” he said. “In many cases your ZIP code is more important than your genetic code.”
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