Life span divide a chasm
Longevity rates vary widely among some area neighborhoods, with poverty a factor
Two miles separate residents of Schenectady’s Hamilton Hill from those on the north side of the city. But when it comes to how long they’ll live, the difference is much greater — 21.2 years, to be exact.
New federal research finds that residents of a census tract within Hamilton Hill are expected to live 66.2 years — the shortest life span of any census tract in the Capital Region and far below the statewide life expectancy of 81 years. Residents of a tract 2 miles north, near the border with Niskayuna, have one of the region’s highest expected life spans of 87.4 years.
“It’s very shocking to me,” said Marva Isaacs, president of the Hamilton Hill Neighborhood Association.
Isaacs is a native of Guyana who moved to New York more than 50 years ago. She’s lived
in Hamilton Hill for 30 years, and has spent much of that time campaigning in her community for more job opportunities, less violence, and better community relations with the police.
Today, she’s 75, and said the sobering statistic is so hard to believe because she’s watched her friends and neighbors grow into old age alongside her.
“Maybe it’s the drugs,” she said. “If they’re drug addicts, they’ll be dying earlier.”
The opioid epidemic has been blamed for bringing life expectancy in the U.S. down in recent years. So has an increase in suicides. Both are responsible for a rise in what researchers call “deaths of despair” — brought on, they theorize, by rising income inequality, rising medical costs, economic stagnation and growing distrust in the nation’s democratic institutions.
A new Associated Press analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics supports this theory, by demonstrating a clear link between life expectancy and income, education and employment.
Consider the census tract within Hamilton
Hill, which is remarkable not only for its relatively short life span but for its median income. At $15,337 a year, the tract, which includes 1,058 households within the boundaries of Hulett and State streets, Veeder Avenue, Hamilton Street, Broadway and Interstate 890, is also the region’s poorest.
High income, long life
That how long a person lives ties so directly to how much money a person makes is not a surprise to those who research health disparities.
“The connection between poverty and health is well known,” said Larry Schell, director of the University at Albany’s Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities.
“It has deep historical roots, but can be changed as demonstrated by health care systems in other countries that provide more and free preventive health programs and treatments that don’t depend on individuals’ wealth and ability to pay.”
In Albany County, a $72,320 difference in median income separates residents of the longestliving census tract from those of the shortest. New Scotland residents, who on average live to 86.4 years of age, earn $88,403 a year compared to residents of a specific downtown Albany tract, where average life expectancy is 72.5 and median yearly earnings are $16,083.
Researchers consider income to be one of several social determinants of health, a concept that posits that social and economic factors have more to do with a person’s health than genetics and lifestyle alone.
Education matters
In Rensselaer County, for example, the census tract with the longest expected life span is on the east side of Troy and encompasses the prestigious Emma Willard School. Residents there are expected to live to 85 years of age. Fewer than 9 percent of households did not finish high school. The median income is $71,444.
Compare that to a tract within the city’s North Central neighborhood, where 29 percent of households did not complete high school.
This tract has one of the region’s shortest expected life spans, 70 years, and one of its lowest median incomes, $24,756.
Race and longevity
Unstable housing, low income, unsafe neighborhoods and substandard education are all associated with poorer health and poorer quality of life. Such factors also explain why racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to suffer poor health and die early, Schell said.
“In our area and the U.S. generally, race is associated with poverty and poverty with lower life expectancy. That is the simple part of it.”
The complex part considers the role that intergenerational discrimination has played, he said. Blacks and other racial minorities were for many years discriminated against when it came to housing, getting into good schools and landing good jobs, factors that associate closely with health.
The ripple effects of this discrimination on future generations are clear when you look at income, education and employment data for these groups today.
It also explains why the longest-living census tracts in the Capital Region (in the Saratoga County towns of Greenfield and Clifton Park) are majority-white and the shortest (Hamilton Hill and Troy’s North Central neighborhood) are majority-minority, Schell said.
“Skin color is not a biological cause of life expectancy,” he said. “Rather, the social factors are the large determinants of health, and social factors include racial discrimination.”
Force for change
Marion Porterfield was also surprised to learn her neighborhood of 45 years has the region’s shortest expected life span.
She wondered about a spate of suicides among teen girls in Hamilton Hill a decade ago, and then wondered whether infant mortality rates could be to blame.
The high rates of black infants and black mothers who die during and after childbirth is currently a topic of investigation at both the state and federal level.
But the Schenectady City Council member doesn’t dwell on her neighborhood’s life expectancy statistic.
“I think that we, as a city, have a job to do,” Porterfield said. “It’s our job to address the things within our control that will make this a place people want to live, and a place people can live comfortably.”
Hamilton Hill recently
“Skin color is not a biological cause of life expectancy. Rather, the social factors are the large determinants of health, and social factors include racial discrimination.” — Larry Schell, director of the University at Albany’s Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities
benefited from an infusion of new development projects, including housing for senior citizens and low income families, a new library and literacy center, and a new discount store. But there has been less progress on other issues, such as homelessness and expanding job opportunities, Porterfield said.
“The neighborhood is improving in terms of brick and mortar,” she said. “But if we want to improve quality of life our people need to be able to make a living wage as well.”