Years of life lost, a measure of premature death, declined 28% for black Americans and 4% for white Americans between 1990 and 2014, according to a study published on April 25 in the journal PLoS ONE. Whites had a higher proportion of early deaths due to drug overdose than other races, while blacks had a higher proportion of early deaths due to homicide and heart disease.
The article can be obtained at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194308&type=printable.