Ohio -- Nearly 30 Year Gap in Life Expectancy Across Ohio.
A new report out shows the life expectancy for Ohioians can vary by decades just based on the neighborhood where they live.
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio released their report called “Closing Ohio’s Health Gaps: Moving Toward Equity” which shows when it comes to being healthy, our state just isn't cutting it.
- Nearly 30 Year Life Expectancy Gap
- Franklin County Among Lowest at 60 Years
- Ohio Ranks 46th Relative to Other States
"Relative to other states, we rank 46th on health value," says Reem Aly, the vice president of Healthcare System and Innovation Policy at HPIO, who authored the report. "What that tells us is Ohioans live less healthy lives and spend more on health care than people in most other states."
The findings are unsettling.
"We found that the gap of life expectancy at birth in Ohio is nearly 30 years depending on where you live in the state," she tells Spectrum News 1.
The Franklinton neighborhood of Franklin County is on the lowest end with a life expectancy of just 60 years.
Compare that to those projected to live the longest in the Stow area of Summit County with a life expectancy of more than 89 years. That's a 29 year difference.
"Not all Ohioans have the same opportunity to live a healthy life based on their race, ethnicity, their income, education level, where they live."
That is apparent when comparing the two neighborhoods. Nearly 44-percent of Franklinton residents are black, 24-percent have a disability, nearly 42-percent have less than high school education, and the median household income is just $9,900.
Only 11-percent of Stow residents have a disability, the vast majority of people are educated, and households are typically bringing home more than $53,000.
As for race, in 2017 the Census Bureau says 93-percents of residents are white, while 3-percent are black.
"We also see gaps in outcomes when it comes to infant mortality," Aly says. "We have nearly three times the rate of black infants not making it to their first birthday in Ohio as compared to white infants. And we also see an increase in depression among people with disabilities; four times that of people without a disability."
This all comes as Ohio's healthcare spending has continued to soar.
"That increase has outpaced the U.S. rate and we cannot sustain this trajectory."
Aly says the hope is this data will be a call to action for these impacted neighborhoods.
"This means addressing unequal access to safe and affordable housing and adequate transportation to get people to their health care appointments, to be able to purchase healthy foods and addressing the other underlying drivers of these gaps and outcomes such as racism, discriminatory policies and practices that we've seen in the past and that continue to persist, such as unequal school funding and predatory lending."
Aly highlights the work of the Nationwide Children's Hospital's Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Families initiative which adopted a nearby neighborhood. They rehabilitate abandoned homes and worked to provide children access to care. She says its those kinds of initiatives that prove there is hope for Ohio.
"We know that there is evidence for what works to close these gaps."
Click here to explore a tool that has just been released that allows people to enter their address and find out from birth how long they could expect to live. The data was compiled by the United States Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimate Project (USALEEP) and is the first-of-its-kind tool that allows people to see their life expectancy from birth down to their neighborhood.