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The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014

Overview of attention for article published in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, April 2016
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#22 of 34,997)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

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1809 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
Title
The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014
Published in
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, April 2016
DOI 10.1001/jama.2016.4226
Pubmed ID
Authors

Raj Chetty, Michael Stepner, Sarah Abraham, Shelby Lin, Benjamin Scuderi, Nicholas Turner, Augustin Bergeron, David Cutler

Abstract

The relationship between income and life expectancy is well established but remains poorly understood. To measure the level, time trend, and geographic variability in the association between income and life expectancy and to identify factors related to small area variation. Income data for the US population were obtained from 1.4 billion deidentified tax records between 1999 and 2014. Mortality data were obtained from Social Security Administration death records. These data were used to estimate race- and ethnicity-adjusted life expectancy at 40 years of age by household income percentile, sex, and geographic area, and to evaluate factors associated with differences in life expectancy. Pretax household earnings as a measure of income. Relationship between income and life expectancy; trends in life expectancy by income group; geographic variation in life expectancy levels and trends by income group; and factors associated with differences in life expectancy across areas. The sample consisted of 1 408 287 218 person-year observations for individuals aged 40 to 76 years (mean age, 53.0 years; median household earnings among working individuals, $61 175 per year). There were 4 114 380 deaths among men (mortality rate, 596.3 per 100 000) and 2 694 808 deaths among women (mortality rate, 375.1 per 100 000). The analysis yielded 4 results. First, higher income was associated with greater longevity throughout the income distribution. The gap in life expectancy between the richest 1% and poorest 1% of individuals was 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4 to 14.8 years) for men and 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9 to 10.3 years) for women. Second, inequality in life expectancy increased over time. Between 2001 and 2014, life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women in the top 5% of the income distribution, but by only 0.32 years for men and 0.04 years for women in the bottom 5% (P < .001 for the differences for both sexes). Third, life expectancy for low-income individuals varied substantially across local areas. In the bottom income quartile, life expectancy differed by approximately 4.5 years between areas with the highest and lowest longevity. Changes in life expectancy between 2001 and 2014 ranged from gains of more than 4 years to losses of more than 2 years across areas. Fourth, geographic differences in life expectancy for individuals in the lowest income quartile were significantly correlated with health behaviors such as smoking (r = -0.69, P < .001), but were not significantly correlated with access to medical care, physical environmental factors, income inequality, or labor market conditions. Life expectancy for low-income individuals was positively correlated with the local area fraction of immigrants (r = 0.72, P < .001), fraction of college graduates (r = 0.42, P < .001), and government expenditures (r = 0.57, P < .001). In the United States between 2001 and 2014, higher income was associated with greater longevity, and differences in life expectancy across income groups increased over time. However, the association between life expectancy and income varied substantially across areas; differences in longevity across income groups decreased in some areas and increased in others. The differences in life expectancy were correlated with health behaviors and local area characteristics.

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Mendeley readers

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Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 11 <1%
United Kingdom 5 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Chile 1 <1%
Colombia 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Korea, Republic of 1 <1%
Belgium 1 <1%
Other 3 <1%
Unknown 1783 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 281 16%
Researcher 241 13%
Student > Master 235 13%
Student > Bachelor 154 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 145 8%
Other 341 19%
Unknown 412 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 321 18%
Social Sciences 250 14%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 200 11%
Nursing and Health Professions 117 6%
Psychology 67 4%
Other 335 19%
Unknown 519 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5507. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 November 2023.
All research outputs
#663
of 24,970,080 outputs
Outputs from JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
#22
of 34,997 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4
of 304,925 outputs
Outputs of similar age from JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
#2
of 381 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,970,080 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 34,997 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 74.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 304,925 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 381 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.