Gap Between Healthiest and Least Healthy Is Growing

The gap between the healthiest people and the least healthy in the United States has grown among those born in recent decades, and will likely continue to grow in the coming generations, a new study suggests.

The researchers found the disparity in healthiness generally declined for each generation from the start of the 20th Century through the baby boomers, who were born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s, but the gap subsequently has grown again in later generations and is now approaching what it was in the early 1900s.

"The dramatic rising health disparities for cohorts born after 1980," said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, surprised the researchers.