New research investigating the effects of sex, race and socioeconomic status have revealed some pretty unsurprising findings: African American men who live below the poverty line have the lowest overall survival of any group in the United States, according to new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine. But experts say what is surprising is the magnitude of the difference between those above and below the poverty line in the black community, USA Today reports.

The study, which sampled both white and black men and women included in a larger study called the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS), found that African-American men living below 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines had an almost 2.7 higher risk of mortality than black men who lived above the poverty line.

Mortality rates among both African-American and white women also followed this trend. But researchers noted that among white men, life spans above and below the poverty line remained about equal.

“Many studies that have been done in the past have looked at poor blacks and rich white [sic], and they have sort of ignored the other combinations,” said Alan Zonderman, PhD, a researcher at the National Institute on Aging, and coauthor of the study. “Perhaps we really need to think about that definition (of poverty).”

The authors suggested their findings were driven by the continued marginalization of African-American men in U.S. society with their lack of access to medical care, even under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), contributing to the disparities reflected.

Click here to learn more about racial inequality in the U.S. healthcare system.