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WASHINGTON—Women's life expectancy declined
significantly in 180 U.S. counties, mostly in the deep South and
Appalachia, between 1983 and 1999, according to a study being released
Tuesday.
Researchers blamed the decrease in women's life expectancy
on high blood pressure as well as chronic diseases related to smoking
and obesity, such as lung cancer and diabetes.
The decline, averaging 1.3 years in the 180 counties. Men's life expectancy declined by 1.3 years in only 11 counties.
In
another 783 counties, women's life expectancy declined by 0.5 years,
but the researchers said those results were not statistically
significant because those counties were relatively small.
The
study, based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and
the U.S. Census Bureau, was designed to analyze disparities in life
expectancy between different counties with different social conditions
and health programs.
Overall, life expectancy rose for both men
and women between 1961 and 1999. For men, it increased from 66.9 years
to 74.1 years; for women, it rose from 73.5 years to 79.6 years.
Between
1961 and 1983, no counties had a statistically significant increase in
mortality, the study said, noting that the reduction for both sexes was
caused by a reduction in cardiovascular mortality.
From 1983
on, however, "The worst-off counties no longer experienced a fall in
death rates, and in a substantial number of counties, mortality
actually increased, especially for women," the researchers wrote. Life
expectancy of women in those counties was 75.5 years in 1999.
"The
study emphasizes how important it is to monitor health inequalities
between different groups," the researchers wrote, "in order to ensure
that everyone—and not just the well-off—can experience gains in life
expectancy."
The analysis was conducted by researchers at
Harvard University, the University of California, San Francisco, and
the University of Washington. It was posted Monday night in the online
journal PLoS Medicine, a publication of the Public Library of Science,
an organization of scientists and physicians.
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On the Net:
PLoS Medicine: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/
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