Study conducted in US resulted that your lifespan can be reduced if you live in poverty

News24xx.com - Poverty can cut a person's lifespan to 10 years for men, and 7 years for women. These conclusions were obtained by research conducted in United States, recently. The study, published in American Journal of Public Health, wanted to find out the effect of socioeconomic differences on the health and life expectancy of US society.

The study was conducted by classifying people in 50 states in US, based on their income. In addition, researchers also compared health, lifestyle and obesity rates in the state, with the highest and lowest income.

Men who live in poor areas have an average life expectancy of 10 years lower than men who live in more prosperous areas. Meanwhile, women in poor areas, generally, died 7 years earlier than those living in the upper middle area. The average life expectancy of men in poor areas is 69 years, and women 76 years old.

"This is a very sad result," said the study's author, Dr. Randy Wykoff, told Reuters. "In other words, there are still 'third world countries' within the United States."

In addition, Wykoff also revealed that in poor areas, obesity rates and smoking habits are also 50 percent higher, than more in prosperous areas. Meanwhile, in terms of race, the poor in United States are mostly African-American and Hispanic.

Wykoff, who is Dean of College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University at Johnson City, said the government should create health programs that focus on the poor. "It is clear that poor people need more health and education assistance. If this continues, this vicious circle will not stop" said Dr. Neal Halfon, head of Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities at University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

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