Jun 16, 2025 06:07 PM
(This post was last modified: Jun 16, 2025 06:10 PM by C C.)
Official US records underestimate Native Americans deaths and life expectancy
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1087285
INTRO: Death rates for American Indians’ and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are far higher than reported in official vital statistics, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher.
Published in JAMA, the nationally representative study found that death certificates for at least 41 percent of AI/AN decedents failed to identify them as AI/AN, in most cases misreporting their race as “White.”
As a result of these death certificate errors, official vital statistics greatly underestimate AI/AN mortality, overestimate AI/AN life expectancy, and understate the mortality disparities between AI/AN and other Americans.
The study showed that the actual gap in life expectancy between AI/AN and the national average was 6.5 years—2.9 times larger than the number reported in unadjusted official statistics. This life expectancy gap nearly doubled during the study period, increasing from 4.1 years between 2008-2010 to 8 years between 2017-2019. Over the whole 11-year study period, AI/AN life expectancy averaged only 72.7 years, similar to the life expectancy in El Salvador and Bangladesh.
Compared to other Americans, AI/AN mortality was particularly high for young and middle-aged adults and was higher than the national average for AI/AN people living on and off reservations. Even AI/AN individuals with a college education died far younger than their non-AI/AN counterparts. Deaths from heart disease (16 percent), cancer (11 percent), and diabetes (10 percent) accounted for the largest shares of the overall mortality gap between AI/AN and other Americans.
The analysis is the first contemporary study to prospectively assess mortality among self-identified AI/AN people in a nationally representative study. The study linked records from the 2008 American Community Survey with mortality data from US vital statistics, enabling calculation of mortality rates and life expectancy that were not biased by underreporting of AI/AN race on death certificates... (MORE - details, no ads)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1087285
INTRO: Death rates for American Indians’ and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are far higher than reported in official vital statistics, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher.
Published in JAMA, the nationally representative study found that death certificates for at least 41 percent of AI/AN decedents failed to identify them as AI/AN, in most cases misreporting their race as “White.”
As a result of these death certificate errors, official vital statistics greatly underestimate AI/AN mortality, overestimate AI/AN life expectancy, and understate the mortality disparities between AI/AN and other Americans.
The study showed that the actual gap in life expectancy between AI/AN and the national average was 6.5 years—2.9 times larger than the number reported in unadjusted official statistics. This life expectancy gap nearly doubled during the study period, increasing from 4.1 years between 2008-2010 to 8 years between 2017-2019. Over the whole 11-year study period, AI/AN life expectancy averaged only 72.7 years, similar to the life expectancy in El Salvador and Bangladesh.
Compared to other Americans, AI/AN mortality was particularly high for young and middle-aged adults and was higher than the national average for AI/AN people living on and off reservations. Even AI/AN individuals with a college education died far younger than their non-AI/AN counterparts. Deaths from heart disease (16 percent), cancer (11 percent), and diabetes (10 percent) accounted for the largest shares of the overall mortality gap between AI/AN and other Americans.
The analysis is the first contemporary study to prospectively assess mortality among self-identified AI/AN people in a nationally representative study. The study linked records from the 2008 American Community Survey with mortality data from US vital statistics, enabling calculation of mortality rates and life expectancy that were not biased by underreporting of AI/AN race on death certificates... (MORE - details, no ads)