The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.20 (579 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B071S1F15D |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 554 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-12-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
David Ansell has spent nearly four decades as a doctor at hospitals serving some of the poorest communities in Chicago, and has witnessed firsthand the lives behind these devastating statistics. In The Death Gap, he gives a grim survey of these realities, drawn from observations and stories of his patients. If you are poor, where you live in America can dictate when you die. The poor die sooner. The Death Gap outlines a vision that will provide the foundation for a healthier nation - for all.. While the contrasts and disparities among Chicago's communities are particularly stark, the death gap is truly a nationwide epidemic - as Ansell shows, there is a 35-year difference in life expectancy between the healthiest and wealthiest and the poorest and sickest American neighborhoods. It doesn't need to be this way; such divisions are not inevitable. And poor urban blacks die sooner than almost all other Americans. Blacks die sooner. Ansell calls out the so
Understanding the health crisis among the disadvantaged in the United States News media have reported recently on scientific papers that show that markers of health can vary greatly between localities in the United States. For example, life expectancies can be as much as two decades shorter in one locality than in another, not just between two parts of the country, but between two areas of the same city! Moreover, it has recently been reported African Americans who move from segregated neighborhoods to integrated ones experience significant declines in blood pressure, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.Dr.. "Essential reading for anyone interested in the health care debate" according to Jonan. In an era when Dr. Ben Carson says poverty is "a state of mind", and Congress wants to "improve" Medicaid by taking out $800+ billion and eliminating coverage for pre-existing conditions, they and more serious-minded people should read this impressive work. Even though it's published by an academic press, this book is very well-written, readable and very accessible to the average reader. I like the way Dr. Ansell uses one street in Chicago --Ogden Avenue -- to show how the average age of death (from illnesses, not violence) varies by 20 years. Must read for those committed to the practice of social medicine I have had the great good fortune to hear Dr. Ansell speak at the Social Medicine Consortium meeting in Chicago in 2017. This book provides a concise and thought provoking approach to the theory that underlies the practice of social medicine. I just finished reading this book while teaching in an intensive social medicine course in Haiti with the dedicated social medicine team from EqualHealth. The context may be different but the basic principles apply here as well.