In 2011, a research team at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, led by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, chair of Epidemiology, estimated the number of US deaths attributable to social factors using a systematic review of the available literature combined with vital statistics data.
“The investigators found that approximately 2,45,000 deaths in the United States in the year 2000 were attributable to low levels of education, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality, and 39,000 to area-level poverty. Overall, 4.5% of US deaths were found to be attributable to poverty—mid- way between previous estimates of 6% and 2.3%,” the study concludes. “Social causes can be linked to death as readily as can pathophysiological and behavioral causes,” points out Dr. Galea.