Forwarded Message:
From: Bierman, Arlene <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 17:18:00 -0500
Subject: Mortality differentials
To: spirit1848 <[log in to unmask]>


For those who have'nt seen this.  It was on the front page
of the washington
post last week.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

     "I don't see how we can continue to ignore the
disparity.  A distance
       of 12 miles between Washington, DC, and Fairfax, VA,
represents
       a difference of nearly two decadesof longevity."
          ----- Representative James Moran, on a new public
health study
                  showing a wide variation in U.S. life
expectancy
                  (AHL 12/4,  story #10)


*10  U.S. LIFE EXPECTANCY:  STUDY SHOWS REGIONAL VARIATIONS
     A new public health study shows that U.S. life spans
"can
differ by as much as 40 years from one county to another,"
USA
Today reports.  The findings, reached by the Harvard School
of
Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention,
are so significant that they "could drive the nation's
public
health agenda well into the next century" (Sternberg, 12/4).
While the data presented yesterday at the 12th Chronic
Disease
Conference were only preliminary, the Washington Post
reports
that they "sketch a picture of the United States as a place
of
longevity extremes, and apparently widening differences in
healthiness."  For example, the study found a 14.5-year
disparity
in the average life span for men living in Washington, DC,
compared with men who live in Fairfax County, VA.
     THE GAP'S WIDENING
     "The biggest surprise was the magnitude of the range of
differences in life expectancy.  I am concerned by this
incredible spread," said Harvard School of Public Health
physician and health economist Christopher Murray, the lead
researcher on the study (Brown/Goldstein, 12/4).  CDC's
Chronic
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Director James Marks
"called the findings incredible, adding that they would
likely
serve as a blueprint for research into chronic diseases,
infectious diseases and urban violence," USA Today reports.
Murray noted that the study showed that "[p]eople living in
a
poor household, no matter where they live in the U.S., have
a
much lower life expectancy."  Economic differences were not
the
only reasons for the wide variations in life expectancy.
The
"study also found that people of different races living in
different parts of the country endure dramatically different
ills" (12/4).  The researchers found that "[w]hile the
average
life expectancy of every major ethnic, sex and regional
group ...
has increased since 1980, the 2% of men and women with
shortest
longevity have barely budged."  According to the Post,
"[t]his
suggests that there are pockets of the United States where
recent
huge gains in health -- fueled by rising income, healthier
lifestyles and better medical care -- have barely been
felt."
     SUGGESTED REASONS
     The Harvard/CDC report did not formally address the
underlying causes for the longevity disparities, but other
experts offered their own views yesterday.  DC Department of
Health Director Allan Noonan said, "It's sad but, I'm sure,
true"
that the lower life expectancy for African-American men is
due
mostly to "limited access to medical care, delayed diagnosis
of
disease and a high homicide rate."  He continued, "You take
those
factors, and tie them in with poverty and other social
issues,
and this is the result."  Robert Stroube, health director
for
Fairfax Country, noted, "The higher the socioeconomic status
of a
community, the longer its life expectancy" (12/4).  At the
CDC
conference, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) said the study's findings
should "certainly direct our policy priorities. ... I don't
see
how we can continue to ignore the disparity.  A distance of
12
miles between Washington, DC, and Fairfax, VA, represents a
difference of nearly two decades of longevity.  That's a
shocking
statistic" (USA Today, 12/4).


  ***************************************************
  From new transmitters came the old stupidities.
  Wisdom was passed on from mouth to mouth.
            -Bertolt Brecht
  ***************************************************

Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Acting Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8