First Appeared Tuesday, 04 March '08

Foundation Touts UCSF Report on Health Differences

A UCSF report, which among other findings revealed that college graduates outlive high school graduates by more than six years, has been released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the foundation’s newly formed Commission to Build a Healthier America. The report, “Overcoming Obstacles to Health,” looked specifically at how education, income and race play a role in Americans’ health.

“Health gaps are exacting a huge human and economic toll,” said lead report author Paula Braveman, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the UCSF School of Medicine. “So often, they are the result of a chain of events that begins early in life. Poor education means people get lower-paying jobs and live in unsafe neighborhoods with low-quality housing. They can’t afford to buy healthy food. Living from paycheck to paycheck causes chronic stress. And physical activity is a luxury. Together, these factors can produce poor health.”

Specific findings included:

• • Poor, less educated and minority Americans on average die up to six years earlier than their wealthier, better educated counterparts.
• • Middle-class Americans on average die up to two years earlier than more affluent Americans.
• • In addition to living longer, more affluent Americans and their children live healthier lives than middle-class and low-income American families.
• • Compared with college graduates, adults who have not finished high school are four times as likely to be in fair or poor health.
• • Compared with adults in the highest-income group, poor adults are three times as likely to have a chronic illness such as asthma or diabetes.
• • Children in the lowest-income families are seven times as likely to be in fair or poor health compared with children in the highest-income families.