2 Columbus areas’ life expectancy among lowest

A new study highlighting unequal health opportunities across Ohio found that the Columbus neighborhoods of Franklinton and the Hilltop are among the four communities in the state with the lowest life-expectancy rates.

At 60 years, Franklinton has the lowest life expectancy, based on 2010 to 2015 data from more than 2,770 census tracts across Ohio, according to “Closing Ohio’s health gaps: Moving towards equity” from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

That’s nearly three decades less than the state’s highest life expectancy — 89.2 years in the Stow area of Summit County in northeast Ohio.

Statewide, the average life expectancy is 77.8 years.

“This troubling disparity is attributed to the fact that not all Ohioans have the same opportunity to live a healthy life based on geography, race and ethnicity, income, education or other social, economic or demographic factors,” says the report released Monday. A person’s social, economic and physical environments also account for half of the modifiable factors that influence health, the report says.

Find the life expectancy associated with your address at www.rwjf.org/en/library/ interactives/whereyouliveaffectshowlongyoulive.html.

Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts, Columbus health commissioner, said the report’s findings are not surprising, and they are in line with Columbus Public Health priorities.

The Hilltop’s 61.6-year life expectancy was tied for third lowest with a tract in Jefferson County in eastern Ohio. Second-lowest (61.1 years) is a tract in Montgomery County in southwest Ohio.

The new report notes that Ohio ranks 46th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO) 2017 health-value analysis, meaning that Ohioans are less healthy and spend more on health care than most other Americans. That won’t change without focusing on the challenges faced by people in neighborhoods such as Franklinton and the Hilltop, said Reem Aly, HPIO vice president of health-care system and innovation policy.

The HPIO’s life-expectancy analysis used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project, a partnership of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems.

Among those most negatively affected by health-related inequalities, the analysis shows, are the poor, African-Americans, people with disabilities and people without high school diplomas.

At the root are factors such as unequal access to education, employment and housing, poor neighborhood safety and lack of public transportation, the report says.

The report recommends collaboration among stakeholders from public and private sectors. It offers up several examples, including Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families partnership to increase access to affordable housing and a Smart Columbus transportation program for pregnant women.