In a recent issue of Health Affairs, HCP Assistant Professor Ellen Meara, PhD, and colleagues described the results of their study of educational disparities in mortality and life expectancy among non-Hispanic blacks and whites in the 1980s and 1990s. The researchers found that, despite an increased focus on health disparities during the past several years, increases in longevity occurred almost exclusively in highly educated individuals. Trends in deaths due to diseases linked to smoking behavior played a role in the discrepancy.

The research received wide coverage in the media, including the New York Times, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Reuters, and Health Day. Read the Harvard Medical School press release about this study.