Health Care Issues

Longevity Increasing With Improving Health

The higher an American's income and education, the longer his or her life expectancy on average. That is one of the primary conclusions of a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Moreover, death rates from heart disease, cancer and firearm wounds are declining.

Here are some highlights of the report:

  • The near-poor are, on average, healthier than those living in poverty; middle-income people are healthier than the near-poor; and people with high incomes tend to be the healthiest.

  • People in the U.S. now live a record 76.1 years -- 79.1 years for women and 73.1 years for men -- compared to an overall life expectancy of just 47.3 years for an infant born in 1900.

  • The infant mortality rate declined to an all-time low of 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1996.

  • From 1990 to 1996, deaths from heart disease dropped 12 percent, while deaths from cancer fell 5 percent.

The proportion of Americans who have no health-care coverage has escalated -- from 12.9 percent in 1987 to 15.6 percent in 1996.

The long-standing gap between life expectancies for men and women has narrowed to just six years. And the gap between whites and blacks narrowed to 6.6 years.

Between 1980 and 1996, death rates from motor vehicle-related injuries have fallen by nearly one-third -- to 16.2 per 100,000 population.

Sources: Steve Sternberg, "Prosper and Live Longer, to 76.1," USA Today and Ruth Larson, "Healthy Linked to Wealthy, Wise," Washington Times, both July 30, 1998.

Wide Range Of Life Expectancies

A study released yesterday by the Harvard School of Public Health revealed an "absolutely staggering range" of life expectancies in different counties of the United States, according to lead reasearcher Christopher Murray. He says longevity may provide the best index of the nation's health.

Researchers found average lifespans can differ by as much as 40 years from one county to another. For example:

  • An Asian woman living in Bergen County, N.J., can expect to live for 96 years, while the average black man in Washington, D.C., lives to age 62 -- a range as broad as the gap between the nations with the longest and shortest lifespans: Japan and Sierra Leone.

  • Women lived longest, to age 83, in a county northwest of Minneapolis, and men lived longest, to about 77, in two counties about 50 miles north of Salt Lake City.

  • The ten unhealthiest areas were in inner cities, in the South and on Indian reservations.

  • Life expectancies were lowest in five neighboring counties in southern South Dakota -- home to two Sioux Indian reservations that have reported large problems with diabetes and alcoholism.

The study correlated cause-of-death statistics with Census Bureau reports, and it will be expanded to include access to medical care. It established, for instance, that residents of inner cities are much more likely than other groups to die prematurely from HIV, homicides and other violence.

Source: Steve Sternberg, "Study Finds Major Gap in U.S. Life Spans," USA Today, and Associated Press, "Surprises in a Study of Life Expectancies," New York Times, both December 4, 1997.

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