LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The life expectancy gap between U.S. blacks and whites has been shrinking over the past decade, said a new research report.

    Overall, the life expectancy divide between whites and blacks has closed from 7.1 years in 1993 to 5.3 years in 2003, said the report, quoting government data.

    In 2003, the average U.S. black could expect to live 72.7 years, compared to 78 years for whites, said the report published in the March 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The report attributed the drop to lower death rates among blacks for homicide, HIV, unintentional injuries and heart disease.

    Despite this progress, the gap remains significant, and more work is needed if the gap is to be further reduced, health experts said.

    From 1993 to 2003, the life-expectancy gap between blacks and whites had declined by 18 percent for women and 25 percent for men, said study co-author John Lynch, from the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal.

    The main reasons for the decline are improving death rates for blacks, Lynch said. For black males, death rates shrink "especially in terms of homicide, HIV and unintentional injuries," he said.

    "For black women, there have been improvements in cardiovascular disease. These causes of death make up 70 to 80 percent of the decline," he said.

    For women, heart disease was the largest contributor to the improvement in life expectancy. Other conditions in 2003 that contributed to the gap narrowing for women included diabetes, stroke and infant mortality, according to the report.

    For men, the largest contributor to the gap in 1983 and 1993 was homicide. By 2003, heart disease had become the leading factor behind the divide, followed by homicide, HIV and infant mortality, the researchers found.

    However, despite this progress, the current gap in life expectancy between blacks and whites remains substantial, Lynch said. "The difference for men is 6.3 years, and for women 4.5 years, " he said.

    "The good news is that the gap has declined," Lynch said. "That should give us some confidence that things can change. But the bad news is that it remains large, but we know what we need to work on."

    Lynch believes the health-care system needs to work harder to improve access and quality of care for blacks, especially when it comes to preventing and treating heart disease in men.

    "We need to target our efforts to reduce this gap between blacks and whites," he said.