Life Expectancy in a Zip Code...
A Response from an
Expert
Yesterday we published an article written by our valued reader, retired federal Judge and current Sun City Anthem resident, Shep Rose.
He received responses to his email and phone
calls to..
Dr. Derek
Chapman
Associate Director for
Research
Center on Society and
Health
Virginia Commonwealth
University
...and with pleasure, we are happy to share them with you.
___________________
Hi
Shep,
I appreciate
your interest in my research study. My apologies for not responding right away,
but we had a big snowstorm in Virginia last week.
The schools and
University were closed on Thursday and Friday, and I have not been in the office
for a while. I think I received comments from you in two separate emails, so I
am replying to both at the same time.
You make a lot
of great points in your emails, and I will do my best to address your
comments:
1. You asked “The article does
not mention Zip codes 89052 or 89044. Was life expectancy studied for these zip
codes?”
89052
was part of the project and had a life expectancy at birth of 82 years. I have
attached a file to this email that lists of all the zip codes that were computed
for Las Vegas. Also, the Las Vegas Sun produced an interactive map on their
website that lets you click on a zip code to see the corresponding life
expectancy for all those in the project:
89044
and other Las Vegas area zip codes were not included in the calculations because
they a) some or all of the zip is outside of Clark County or b) I did not
receive data from the Nevada Department of Health for those
areas.
2. You stated that “This Center has published extensive prior
research in Alameda County, California, comparing affluent high income
communities with most families having: jobs, medical insurance and primary
provider doctors, as compared with: “skidrow”zip codes where the majority of
residents have no well-paying jobs, no primary providers,no health
insurance,..I might add: no jobs, heavy smokers, alcoholics, etc...these have
lower life expectancy.! SURPRISE??”
You
are correct that life expectancy (and health in general) is highly correlated
with community characteristics such as poverty, lack of health insurance, lack
of primary care physicians, unemployment, and risky behaviors like smoking and
alcohol/drug abuse.
As
surprising as it may seem, there are a lot of people who have not “connected the
dots” between these community problems and poor health.
The
purpose of these maps is to raise awareness about how community factors like
transportation, air pollution, crime, housing, food access, and access to good
medical care can all affect health.
3. You asked: “Do the Zip Codes
in The Clark County Life Expectancy Table, attributed to you, reflect the median
income level of each Zip code?
The
higher the income, the greater the life
expectancy?”
Yes,
life expectancy has a very high correlation with poverty.
I did
not have the median income level of each zip code for this project; but if I
did, I would expect that areas with higher income would have the highest life
expectancy and those with lower income would have lower life
expectancy.
4. You said: “Comments and
feedbacks welcomed on my tentative conclusion: senior 55+communities have higher
median age than the communities surrounding them in the same zip code.
Furthermore, as stated in the article, senior community residents
have: steady income, health insurance, primary providers, etc.
Higher
median age brings with it morbidity and mortality associated with advanced
age.”
Another very insightful observation!
Life
expectancy calculation is not affected by different age distributions among the
zip codes because it is computed by looking at mortality rates within small
(5-year) age ranges.
However, as you astutely point out, if a community such as yours
has better access to primary care providers, higher income, good health
insurance, and more social support than seniors living throughout other areas of
Las Vegas, I would expect much lower age-specific mortality rates and much
higher life expectancy.
In
summary, this is exactly the type of conversation the project’s funder (Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation) and I hoped the maps would generate!
The
goal was to get a conversation going with policymakers and residents about how
communities can work together to ensure that every person, regardless of where
they live, has the opportunity to lead a long and healthy
life.
Thanks
for your interest and thoughtful comments!
Regards,
Derek
(Chapman)
In a second email sent to
Shep Rose from Derek Chapman:
I checked the original data we
received from the Health Department, and we did receive mortality data for
89044.
However, we could not calculate life
expectancy accurately for 89044 because there were a very small number of deaths
in the ages 1-40 years.
Mortality at younger ages is always
low relative to older ages.
Given the comment you made in an
earlier email about your community not having a lot of school children, it is
understandable that there would be a lot of younger ages with few or no
deaths.
Here's a helpful link that
you might wish to examine.
___________________
We at Anthem
Opinions sincerely thank Judge Rose for sharing both his correspondence and
response from Dr. Derek Chapman.
...Just another
example of community awareness, and the fascinating individuals, we in Sun City
Anthem, are privileged to call "neighbor".
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