Giving Everyone the Health of the Educated: An Examination of Whether Social Change Would Save More Lives Than Medical Advances
Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH,
Robert E. Johnson, PhD,
Robert L. Phillips, Jr, MD, MSPH and
Maike Philipsen, PhD
Steven H. Woolf is with the Departments of Family Medicine, Epidemiology, and Community Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. Robert E. Johnson is with the Departments of Biostatistics and Family Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. Robert L. Phillips, Jr, is with the Robert Graham Center of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Washington, DC. Maike Philipsen is with the Department of Foundations of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.
FIGURE 1——Age-adjusted mortality rates in the United States: 1900–2003.
Note. Data were derived from the National Center for Health Statistics; specific database sources are available as an online supplement to this article.
FIGURE 2——Deaths potentially averted per year in the United States by medical advances and by eliminating education-associated excess mortality: 1996–2002.
Note. The graph demonstrates that elimination of education-associated excess mortality (white bars) would save considerably more lives than would medical advances (black bars). Cumulatively during 1996–2002, elimination of education-associated excess mortality would avert 1 369 335 deaths, whereas medical advances would avert 178 193 deaths. The estimate of deaths averted by eliminating education-associated excess mortality applies only to adults aged 18–64 years, whereas deaths averted by medical advances include all age groups (see the online supplement to this article for more information).
