CLICK HERE. / " title="FEMALE LIFE EXPECTANCY by county in 2007, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. For a larger version of this image, CLICK HERE. /"/>SEATTLE – While people in Japan and Canada, among others, are enjoying significant gains in life expectancy every year, most counties within the United States are falling behind, according to study released by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The institute, a research center at the University of Washington, found that life expectancies fell in more than 80 percent of U.S. counties when compared with the average of the 10 nations with the best life expectancies in the world, which is dubbed the international frontier.
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In U.S. counties, life expectancy in 2007 ranged from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 to 86 years for women.
“We are finally able to answer the question of how the U.S. fares in comparison to its peers globally,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, IHME director and one of the study’s co-authors.
“Despite the fact that the U.S. spends more per capita than any other nation on health, eight out of every 10 counties are not keeping pace in terms of health outcomes. That’s a staggering statistic,” he said.
The county-level statistics found large disparities nationwide; women fared worse than men and people in Appalachia, the Deep South, and northern Texas lived the shortest lives, according to “Falling behind: life expectancy in U.S. counties from 2000 to 2007 in an international context” which was published June 15.
The range for U.S. counties was 16 calendar years ahead to more than 50 behind for women and from 15 years ahead to more than 50 behind for men, meaning that some counties have a life expectancy today that nations with the best health outcomes had in 1957, the study said.
Researchers pointed to high rates of obesity, tobacco use and other preventable risk factors for an early death as the “leading drivers” of the gap between the U.S. and other nations.
Five counties in Mississippi have the lowest life expectancies for women, under 74.5 years, lagging behind Honduras, El Salvador and Peru. Four of the same counties have the lowest life expectancies for men – under 67 years – as well as Humphreys County, Miss.
In Rhode Island’s five counties, the life expectancy for men in 2007 was: Bristol, 77 years; Kent, 75.9; Newport 77.9; Providence 75.7; and Washington 78.1.
For women, the life expectancy was 82.6 years in Bristol; 81 in Kent; 81.7 in Newport; 81.4 in Providence; and 82 in Washington.
When comparing Rhode Island life expectancies with the rest of the nation, Washington County had the highest ranking, at 83, for men while Providence had the lowest of the five counties, at 648.
For Rhode Island women, the best ranking came in Bristol County, at 78, while the lowest came in Kent County at 531.
When comparing the counties to the “international frontier” or the nations with the best health outcomes, for women, life expectancies lagged: 15 years behind in Kent County, 12 years behind in Newport County, 13 years behind in Providence County, 10 years behind in Washington County, and eight years behind in Bristol.
For Rhode Island men, life expectancies had the greatest lag in Providence, 13 years, and Kent, 12 years, and the least in Washington, 4 years, and Newport, 4 years. Bristol County came in the middle, with eight years behind in the international frontier, the same for men and women.
