New research published by a pair of Hunter professors found that the life expectancy of American Indian and Alaska Native individuals is significantly lower, by about three years, than official government data suggests.
The study, published in JAMA and co-authored by Hunter College faculty members Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein, is the first in more than a decade to use self-identified race data from a nationally representative cohort to correct for pervasive racial misclassification on death certificates.