Social factors impacting lifespan by up to 18 yrs

Individual risks, genes explain differences in health death, but evidence shows conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work shape health

A combination of four social factors - gender, marital status, education and race -- could impact risk of early death by up to 18 years, according to a study that analysed US citizens' data to devise a lifespan scoring system.

While individual risks and genes partly explain differences in health and death, researchers said that evidence increasingly points to how social conditions, in which people are born, grow, live and work, shape one's health.