Shorter Lifespan Associated with Residing in a Racially Segregated Neighborhood

Black people living in racially segregated neighborhoods may have a shorter life expectancy than White people who live in non-segregated neighborhoods, a new study finds.

Much discussion has been generated over how discriminatory economic and housing policies have impacted the quality of life of people of color in the United States, particularly Black Americans.

Now, new research out of Northwestern University sheds light on how Black people living in racially segregated neighborhoods are showing signs of shorter life expectancies compared to White peers who live in non-segregated neighborhoods.

In order to understand how neighborhood segregation can impact someone’s health, the research team examined 63,694 census tracts nationwide. The average life expectancy was 78.

The average life expectancy was three years lower than the national average (75) in predominantly Black neighborhoods that have experienced high racial segregation.

The average life expectancy in neighborhoods with low racial segregation was 79 years old.

Corresponding study author Sadiya Kahn, MD, MSc, the Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology and an assistant professor of cardiology and epidemiology at Northwestern Medicine, told Health that the most surprising aspect of the results was the degree of difference in life expectancy.

“It was not just one or two years, but four years different based on where you lived,” she said.

In addition to life expectancy, the study also found other social differences—that often link to health outcomes—between racially segregated and non-segregated neighborhoods.

In high-segregated neighborhoods, 81% of people lacked a college education compared to 69% in low-segregated neighborhoods. Similarly, 24% of people in high-segregated neighborhoods were living below the federal poverty line compared to 11% in low-segregated neighborhoods, and 16% of people were unemployed in high-segregated areas compared to 8% in low-segregated places.

The researchers note that factors like housing stability, environmental pollution, and healthcare access were not included in this study, but are certainly tied to issues around structural racism and “also likely mediate the association between segregation and life expectancy.”

Kahn said the link between neighborhood segregation and shorter life spans is complex.

“Our study found that neighborhood rates of poverty, high school education, and unemployment explained about two-thirds of the association between segregation and life expectancy,” she said.

Jahred Liddie, MS, a doctoral student in population health sciences in the environmental health department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who is unaffiliated with this research, told Health that there are numerous factors that account for lower life expectancies in these highly segregated neighborhoods, citing economic barriers, reduced access to quality health care, and worsened environmental exposures.

Kahn said access—and lack of access—to resources like healthy food and quality health care stand “at the center of the economic disinvestment in communities that are downstream of segregation as a result of structural racism.”

She pointed to The Opportunity Atlas as one helpful, interactive tool that can shed light on how “risk profiles cluster in highly segregated neighborhoods and influence health and well-being.”

Liddie said this kind of research supports the understanding that discriminatory housing practices and structural racism “shorten the lives of individuals at a neighborhood level.”

He noted that “unemployment, education, and poverty help explain this, but [those] are certainly not the only factors accounting for this disparity.”

Essentially, being cut off from the resources a person may need to be in optimal health can cut life short.

Both Kahn and Liddie agree that research like this can offer a better birds-eye look at how this kind of segregation can take its toll.

While research like this is helpful for awareness and understanding, the true test of its effectiveness comes when it’s time to act.

According to Liddie, the authors of this paper suggest that intervention that promotes better employment and educational opportunities and reduces poverty could play a role in reducing these health and economic disparities.

“Of course, we cannot interpret this in a causal manner as there may be other factors underlying the results observed by the authors,” he said. “I think interventions to improve housing quality, health care access, and reduce environmental pollution are also important.”

Kahn noted that this kind of research can “ring the alarm bell” for the fact that critical research and policy changes are needed to better invest in communities.

It’s important to “address these economic factors highlighted in this present study focused on opportunities for employment, education, and reducing poverty,” she said.

Looking ahead, Kahn said she and her fellow researchers are interested in looking at the “influence of segregation on upstream risk factors for premature death.”

She said these include cardiovascular disease, hypertension, as well as “quantifying the potential ways to mitigate the greater burden of these factors in individuals living in highly segregated areas.”