Obesity and smoking to blame as life expectancy falls in poorest U.S. counties... but you can get 15 more years by living in the right areas



How long Americans live can vary by an incredible 15 years just based on where they are based.

Life expectancy has fallen in hundreds of U.S. counties - mostly in the South, according to a University of Washington study.

A man in Virginia’s Fairfax County on average now lives 15 years longer than one in Holmes County, Mississippi, demonstrating major health disparities.

Disparities: A man in Virginia's Fairfax County now lives 15 years longer than in Holmes County, Mississippi - and life expectancy has fallen in hundreds of U.S. counties - mostly in the South, a university study said

Study: Problems like smoking and obesity are partly behind the drop in life expectancy in the South - and there are enormous variations within the U.S., but overall life expectancy in the country is at an all-time high

The big disparities can also be seen between females - as a woman in Collier County, Florida, has 12 years on a woman in Holmes, reported Bloomberg.



The study in online journal Population Health Metrics reports problems like smoking and obesity as partly to blame.

Study author Dr Christopher Murray said: 'There are enormous variations within the country.'

But overall life expectancy in the U.S. is at an all-time high.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that a baby born in 2009 could expect to live 78 years and 2 months.

The CDC doesn't calculate estimates by county; Murray's research covers 2000 through 2007 when U.S. life expectancy grew a year to nearly 78.



A federal expert in these kinds of statistics said Murray's methods were sound, but the findings aren't terribly surprising.

Compared: This map shows how many calendar years the county life expectancy is behind or ahead of the international frontier for males in 2007

Female comparisons: Murray's research covers 2000 through 2007 when U.S. life expectancy grew a year to nearly 78

The U.S. estimate actually dropped from 2004 to 2005, noted Bob Anderson of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Given that downward blip - and the fact that statistics fluctuate more when you're dealing with smaller populations - it's not unexpected to see some declines at the local level, he said.



The study found that life expectancy for women fell significantly in 702 of the nation's more than 3,100 counties.



The largest declines - by nearly two years - were in Mississippi's Madison County, near Jackson, and the adjacent Hughes and Okfuskee counties in eastern Oklahoma.

Life expectancy dropped for men in 251 counties, by more than two years in Kentucky's Perry County in Appalachia and Mississippi's Madison.



In 158 counties, it dropped for both men and women. In some cases, counties with plummeting life expectancy were next to or very near counties with rising longevity.

There is some debate about why life expectancy estimates rose and fell more in some counties than others.

Long life: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that a baby born in 2009 could expect to live 78 years and 2 months

Murray and his colleagues said they checked issues like poverty or racial make-up, and those didn't explain the difference.



They believe high rates of obesity, smoking and other preventable health problems may be main reasons.



Some experts disagree, saying the findings may be tied to the availability of good health care or with the migration of healthy people from one place to another.



Perhaps young blacks and whites are leaving to go off to college or work somewhere else.



Anderson explained: 'That leaves the least educated and the least healthy' back in the original counties.

Or, in some places, the arrival of healthy Hispanic immigrants may be the reason, said Dr Roger Rochat, an Emory University public health professor and trained demographer.

Unhealthy: Researchers believe problems like smoking and obesity are partly to blame for the sinking numbers

But Murray said his research finds migration theories are not the answer; there's been little movement in or out of most places with the lowest life expectancy.



The counties with the largest increases in male life expectancy, though, were metro areas lush with jobs and universities - almost four years in Georgia's Fulton County (Atlanta) and more than three years in New York City, Washington and nearby Alexandria, Virginia.

For women, the biggest jumps - three years - were in Alexandria and a Wyoming County that includes the affluent Jackson Hole skiing area and much of Yellowstone National Park.



Curiously, third on that list was Louisiana's Orleans Parish even though it included the 2005 devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.



A large number of healthy women could have stayed in the city or returned the next two years, Rochat said.

