Health News
The life expectancy of the average U.S. female increased 1.7 years from 1999 to 2009 -- 79.6 to 81.3 years. Good news on the whole, but Daily Yonder reporters Bill Bishop and Robert Gallardo went a little farther in their analysis of the data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. They found that rural women hardly kept up, and some even lost ground in the decade while their urban sisters obviously gained from widespread health advances.
Bishop and Gallardo report, "The solid gain in longevity was matched in only 168 rural or exurban counties, or 6.5 percent of all the counties outside the cities." That is, while women in most of the nation were living longer lives, in many rural counties -- some 622 of them, in fact -- their longevity shortened in the same decade. Several of those counties were in Eastern Kentucky. The 622 counties represent some 24 percent of rural counties and exurban counties (or counties in a metro area where more than half live in rural census tracts), women lived shorter lives in 2009 than in 1999. You can see a similar map and charts for rural men here. (Click on the above map for a larger image)
As the Yonder writers point out, "The map shows that rural and exurban women are not keeping up with the health advances enjoyed in the rest of the country. In more than 95 percent of rural and exurban counties, changes in female longevity in the last 10 years failed to match the gains experienced in the rest of the country." The largest decreases in female life expectancy between 1999 and 2009 were clustered in Oklahoma, Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Georgia. (Read more)
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Health News
Female life expectancy in several Eastern Ky. counties declined
Bishop and Gallardo report, "The solid gain in longevity was matched in only 168 rural or exurban counties, or 6.5 percent of all the counties outside the cities." That is, while women in most of the nation were living longer lives, in many rural counties -- some 622 of them, in fact -- their longevity shortened in the same decade. Several of those counties were in Eastern Kentucky. The 622 counties represent some 24 percent of rural counties and exurban counties (or counties in a metro area where more than half live in rural census tracts), women lived shorter lives in 2009 than in 1999. You can see a similar map and charts for rural men here. (Click on the above map for a larger image)
As the Yonder writers point out, "The map shows that rural and exurban women are not keeping up with the health advances enjoyed in the rest of the country. In more than 95 percent of rural and exurban counties, changes in female longevity in the last 10 years failed to match the gains experienced in the rest of the country." The largest decreases in female life expectancy between 1999 and 2009 were clustered in Oklahoma, Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Georgia. (Read more)
- Study Finds Nutritious Food Costs More In Poor, Rural Areas, Suggests That Snap (food Stamp) Policies Be Changed
A study has found that nutritious foods are more expensive in impoverished rural counties than in urban counties, a phenomenon that doesn't help public health officials who teach healthy eating as a proven, effective strategy to prevent chronic diseases...
- Owsley Men Most Likely In U.s. To Be Obese, Perry Women Most Likely To Die; Morgan Women Led Nation In Increasing Exercise
Men in Owsley County are the fattest in the United States, and women in Perry County have the lowest life expectancy, 72, according to an NBC News report based on data assembled by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which...
- U Of L's Trover Medical Campus Ranked Among Best For Rural Medicine Education And Addresing Rural Physician Shortage
The University of Louisville School of Medicine Trover Rural Campus in Madisonville was rated third best in the nation for preparing medical students to practice in rural areas, which is critical to the state since most of Kentucky's rural counties...
- Study Finds Only Counties In Appalachia, Mostly In Kentucky, Had Increasing Rates Of Death Among Both Sexes As Century Turned
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News More than 40 percent of counties saw increases in female death rates as the 21st Century began, while the death rate for men rose in just 3 percent of counties, a study shows. Only Appalachian counties, mostly in...
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While rural Americans have less access to primary care and have worse health outcomes, the care at rural hospitals is equal to, if not better, than that at urban hospitals, a National Rural Health Association report says. The study also found rural health...