Finally, the blog works. I thought I was going to have to move to Wordpress! So much to say after three weeks after my last post. I am going to discuss a recent LA Times article "LA County Sees Lifespans Lengthening" (http://tinyurl.com/327xzpr) by Molly Hennessy-Fiske.  The county examined the life expectancy of 103 cities and areas in the LA county and found that life expectancy has increased across the boards and this is good news. However, from the results Public Health officials have found that there is a race and class component to the numbers.

The results should not be a big surprise. People who have more money will have more access to better health care and this correlates into better health. Likewise, certain racial groups are apt to suffer from certain health issues. For instance, African Americans are more likely to suffer from Hypertension, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Obesity compared to the average American. And, Asians and Pacific Islanders are more likely to live longest in the county, as the report noted.

What made me do a double take,though, was the causes of death for men and women. Heart disease was the leading cause of death for both women and men. But, the secondary reason for women was breast cancer and for men it was homicide. Yes, you read that correctly, homicide was the second most common cause of death for men in LA County! Looking at the cities ranked lowest for life expectancy one can surmise that these areas have a higher concentration of African Americans: Compton, Inglewood, and Lynwood. Lancasgter and Palmdale were in the list and do not have higher concentrations of African Americans.

The five cities with the highest levels of life expectancy are La Canada Flintridge, Walnut, Beverly Hills, Diamond Bar, and Arcadia. These areas are primarily middle class, upper middle class, and upper class + neighborhoods and White majority or Asian American majority. Thus, for LA County the results demonstrate that there are real correlations between race, class, and life expectancy. What will be interesting to see, though is how these numbers changed 5-10 years post-Health Care Reform.

Kudos to LA Times writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske for a well-written article.