June 15--When Dr. Ali Mokdad left Atlanta and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for Seattle and the University of Washington, he did a surprising thing for his 11-year-old daughter.
"I increased her life expectancy," said Mokdad, a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the university.
The group on Wednesday released a county-by-county look at life expectancy in the U.S. from 1987 to 2007 and found that more than 80 percent of counties were not seeing the same gains as the 10 countries with the best longevity.
It is even worse for women in Georgia. In more than 40 percent of counties, including McDuffie and Burke, life expectancy has slowed or even declined in the last 10 years of the study.
One explanation for the gender differences is in smoking, Mokdad said. In the U.S., men started smoking earlier and peaked earlier, so deaths are declining, while for women that might not have happened yet, he said.
"Basically, I would say the tobacco epidemic is catching up with the women," Mokdad said.
Although obesity is a problem everywhere, it is particularly bad in the Southern states and for women, he said.
"Especially in the South, the obesity epidemic has affected women more than men," he said.
Socioeconomic factors, such as education and income, tend to increase life span in counties that have higher levels.
Rural counties in Georgia seem to fare worse than urban and much of that is likely because of access to healthful foods, and lack of adequate and effective medical care, Mokdad said.
The results of the study were published in the journal Population Health Metrics .
Augusta health leaders have been concerned for some time about addressing the health needs of the community, and many came together in 2007 to form the Greater Augusta Healthcare Network, said Dr. Lucy Marion, the dean of the College of Nursing at Georgia Health Sciences University and secretary for the group.
Recently incorporated as a nonprofit, the group has tried to serve as a support for community clinics, helping one become a Federally Qualified Health Center with perhaps a second one on the way, she said.
The group also has done needs assessments and notes the success the six faith-based clinics in town have had in meeting many of these needs. But there are also tremendous challenges, such as the area's high rate of poverty, Marion said.
"Health behaviors can't stand alone. You have to look at everything," she said. "Our children in poverty (level) is very high. So it's hard to think about healthy behaviors when you have this much poverty."
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