People living longer in all Ohio counties
A new report shows that life expectancies have risen in all 88 of Ohio’s counties.
Nationwide, life expectancies dropped in 13 counties from 1980 to 2014, according to the report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The lowest life expectancy in 2014 was 66.8 years, in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. The highest life expectancy, 86.8 years, was in Summit County, Colorado.
The report, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at death certificates from 1980 through 2014. Among the places with sharply increased life expectancy and lower deaths over that period are the District of Columbia and Loudoun County, Virginia — where life expectancy is up 12.8 and 12.4 percent, respectively.
Fairfax County, Virginia, has the lowest all-cause death rate in the metropolitan Washington region, significantly lower than the national average.
In Ohio, the life expectancy statewide in 2014 was 77.9 years. That compares with a U.S. life expectancy of 79.1.
Franklin County ranks 55th among the state’s counties, with a life expectancy of 77.6 years, which is 6.65 percentage points higher than 1980. Among central Ohio counties, Delaware County is second in the state with an 81.4 expectancy.
Delaware County Health Commissioner Shelia Hiddleson said residents there have access to health care when they need it.
“We have enough physicians in the county that our ratio is one physician for every 750 residents, whereas across Ohio that ratio is one physician for every 1,300 residents,” Hiddleson said.
Geauga County, located in northeastern Ohio, leads the state with 81.6 years. The county with the lowest life expectancy was Jackson, in southern Ohio, with 74.6.
Delaware County 81.43 (+8.91) Union County 79.08 (+6.52) Fairfield County 78.95 (+5.33) Licking County 78.07 (+5.95) Franklin County 77.60 (+6.65) Madison County 77.58 (+6.54) Pickaway County 77.50 (+5.75) Ohio 77.91 (+6.25) United States 79.08 (+7.22)
Geauga County Health Commissioner Bob Weisdack said residents there don’t have the same stress associated with more urban settings.
“It is a much more relaxed atmosphere,” Weisdack said. “Kids can go outside and play and climb trees.”
This year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked Geauga County second in the state for health outcomes and behaviors, making it among the healthiest counties in Ohio by measure.
While advances in science have led to overall higher life expectancies in central Ohio, there are vast differences among neighborhoods, said Jose Rodriguez, spokesman for Columbus Public Health.
Poverty, education, housing and safety issues can all create varied life expectancies, not only from county to county but from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Such disparities can be seen all over the country, said Kathy Cowen, director of the office of epidemiology at Columbus Public Health.
“We know that there are differences across the county, just geographically,” she said. “Those typically line up with areas that are underresourced, lower education, lower-income areas.”
Rodriguez said although many troubled areas in Columbus are showing promise, it takes years to see a measurable difference. A key to moving the needle, he said, is “deploying resources to areas that need it the most, so they can also share in the good health outcomes that everybody deserves.”
Nationwide, the 20-year difference between the highest and lowest life expectancies can be explained by risk factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure and smoking, as well as by socioeconomic factors, including race, education and income, said the study’s lead author, Laura DwyerLindgren, a researcher at the institute.
“These findings demonstrate an urgent imperative, that policy changes at all levels are gravely needed to reduce inequality in the health of Americans,” Ali Mokdad, an institute researcher who helped author the study, said in a statement.
“Federal, state and local health departments need to invest in programs that work and engage their communities in disease prevention and health promotion.”
Of the 10 counties where life expectancy has dropped the most since 1980, eight are in Kentucky. The other two are in Oklahoma and Alabama.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans began voting today in a special election to replace ousted leader Park Geun-hye, the culmination of months of political discord marked by the country’s biggest street protests since the 1980s.
Polls opened at 6 a. m. and will close at 8 p. m., with exit polls released shortly afterward. A winner is expected sometime around midnight in Seoul.
Moon Jae-in, the runner- up to Park in 2012, is the favorite to become president and end nine years of conservative rule. His rivals include Ahn Cheol- soo, 55, of the centrist People’s Party, and Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party, an offshoot of Park’s conservative wing.
The winner will inherit a nation riven by divisions, with younger voters pushing back against an older generation that have put right- leaning politicians in charge of South Korea for most of the time since it embraced democracy. Park’s downfall has split the conservative camp and provided an opening for Moon, who advocates dialogue with North Korea and measures to rein in family- run conglomerates known as chaebol.