CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Apr 23, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers say
smoking, high blood pressure and obesity have dropped the life expectancy for
people in Appalachia and parts of the South.
While overall U.S. life expectancy increased more than seven years for men and
more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000, there is a small but
significant group that is dying younger, a report by the Harvard School of
Public Health and the University of Washington said.
The researchers found that those regions 4 percent of the male population and 19
percent of the female population experienced either decline or stagnation in
mortality beginning in the 1980s. The majority of the counties with the largest
downward swings in life expectancy were in the Deep South along the Mississippi
River, Appalachia, the southern Midwest and Texas, the report said.
"There has always been a view in U.S. health policy that inequalities are more
tolerable as long as everyone's health is improving. There is now evidence that
there are large parts of the population in the United States whose health has
been getting worse for about two decades," lead author Majid Ezzati, a Harvard
professor, said in a statement.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2008 by United Press International