John Yang:
As we’ve reported recently, life expectancy in the United States is now at its lowest level in nearly two decades, and the projected lifetimes of Black and Native Americans are shorter than for white Americans. New research offers an insight on a potential factor driving this disparity, it finds that Black people live longer in areas with more Black primary care doctors.
Michael Dill is one of the authors of the study. He’s the Director of Workforce Studies at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents medical schools and training hospitals.
How big a benefit or how big a difference is there between life expectancy for Black Americans in a county with no Black physicians and in counties with at least one Black physician?
Michael Dill, Association of American Medical Colleges: Well, John, what we found is that for every 10% increase in the relative Representation of Black primary care physicians, we saw a one month increase in life expectancy for Black people living in those same counties.
