Although medical advances prevented nearly 175,000 deaths in 1996-2000, correcting the conditions that account for disparities in education could have saved eight times as many lives.

A study using vital statistics data from 1996-2002 estimated the maximum number of averted deaths attributable to medical advances and the number of deaths that would have been averted if adults with lesser education had experienced the mortality rates of college-educated adults. The result: medical advances prevented approximately 175,000 deaths, whereas giving all adults the death rate of those with a college education would have saved 1.4 million lives.

Higher death rates among people with lower education levels are linked to complex factors including lower incomes, inferior access to health care and unhealthy environments. Social change could surpass medical breakthroughs in saving lives because social conditions hold great influence over health status.

"On the basis of how many lives can be saved, our data suggest that efforts to correct the social conditions causing education-associated excess mortality should be proportionately greater than society's investment in medical advances. Today's leaders embrace opposite priorities, however," the study's authors said. "Indeed, budget pressures from escalating health care costs and medical research have led the government to reduce support for social services, including education, thereby choking off an upstream strategy that could reduce the demand for health care." [From: "Giving Everyone the Health of the Educated: An Examination of Whether Social Change Would Save More Lives Than Medical Advances" Contact: Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Virginia Commonwealth University, Fairfax, Va.]

The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly journal of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the oldest organization of public health professionals in the world. APHA is a leading publisher of books and periodicals promoting sound scientific standards, action programs and public policy to enhance health. More information is available at apha.