Is There a Racial/Ethnic Hierarchy in Health Status and Care (Report‪)‬

Introduction An important marker of a nation's level of social, economic, and even political development is the well-being of its population. Health determines longevity, life expectancy, economic productivity, and both the mental and physical quality of life. Accordingly, studying the covariates of health status among population members is important in social research. There is accumulating evidence that despite increases in some U.S. population health indicators, there remain substantial disparities by race/ethnicity. Some reports actually suggest worsening racial inequities (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS] 2004). For example, life expectancy at birth in the United States was 77.4 for the entire population in 2002. Among whites (both sexes), it was 77.9, but for blacks, it was only 72.4. The black/white disparity is even more startling when groups are isolated by gender. For the white population, life expectancy in 2002 was 75.3 for males, and it was 80.3 for females. However, among blacks, corresponding figures were 68.9 (males) and 75.7 (females). Although the U.S. has made strides in improving life expectancy for the population since 1960, the gap between two racial groups (blacks and whites) has remained consistently wide for the past 40 years (NCHS 2004).