Stress, I've long suspected, may explain why lifespans have been lengthening for high-income Americans but have remained the same or even shortened for low-income and middle-income people. A new analysis from the Hamilton Project released today adds important evidence: Biomarkers of stress have risen much more rapidly for low-income people than for high-income ones.
The most recent national data show that life expectancy declined in 2015. Although these statistics are not broken down by income, it’s a good bet that the greatest declines were concentrated among lower- and middle-income people, because for decades gaps in life expectancy by income have been widening -- as a National Academy of Sciences panel I co-chaired documented.
