Health

US Life Expectancy Falls for Large Segment of Population

by Mikasi | April 23, 2008 at 04:08 am

327 views | 4 Recommendations | 2 comments

"Wedon't associate worsening of health, worsening of life expectancy withsomething that happens in a developed high-income country."

But that is what a study discovered about life expectancy incertain geographical portions of the United States. The study, releasedyesterday, was from the Harvard School of Public Health. The study'slead author was Majid Ezzati, an Associate Professor of InternationalHealth at the Harvard School of Public Health.

[T]he"worst off" were among lower income Americans concentrated in thesouthern states.

He says in these communities race did not seem to affect lifeexpectancy. "It is something associated with the way policies areimplemented, with the way health systems are providing health servicesto people in different parts of the country or not providing servicesto people."

The study looked at populations on a county by county basis. Datawas gathered from every county in the USA. The lead author noted thatthe all-to-common maladies of "smoking, high blood pressure and obesityas factors driving the trend.

Other things you need to know about this story -

Many more women are effected than men

The biggest impacts have been in the American South

Lower income people are the ones effected

These geographic disparities began showing up in the1980's

The problem can be traced to the way health policies and practices are implemented - or not implemented - by health providers

The lead author believes the problem can be traced to the

The study was published in PloS Medicine.