Princess Health and Wellness coalition in Perry County, where life expectancy is state's lowest, gets funding from Foundation for a Healthy Ky.. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Wellness coalition in Perry County, where life expectancy is state's lowest, gets funding from Foundation for a Healthy Ky.. Princessiccia

Appalachia children children's health education farm to school farmers' markets food Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky foundations grants hospitals life expectancy nutrition philanthropy schools

Gusty 10:14 Add Comment

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has funded the Perry County Wellness Coalition's three-year plan to encourage fitness and better nutrition in school-age children, "Kids on the Move!"

The wellness coalition will receive $144,450 from the foundation this year, matched by $124,944 from the community, to increase access to physical activity and provide healthier food options and nutrition education. Perry County has the lowest life expectancy in Kentucky.

"Our children are the most valuable resource we have," said Gerry Roll, executive director of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, which is serving as fiscal agent for the coalition. "It's the best investment we can make as a community partner."

The health coalition will work with local schools to implement physical activity and nutrition-policy changes, collaborate with local farmers' markets for a strong farm-to-school component, and coordinate with other community agencies to create a lasting and collective impact.

The project also will implement best-practices nutrition and exercise programs in schools, support community gardens, summer feeding programs, and a "Farmacy" program to increase the purchase of healthier produce at farmers' markets and local grocery stores, among other changes to be coordinated by the agencies in the coalition.

The Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital in Hazard will be the administrative hub for the coalition, providing leadership and sharing its expertise in promoting community health. "We have already begun these efforts by providing fitness fairs and health screenings to over 20 schools in our service area and reaching a little more than 2,500 middle school and high school age kids this year alone," said Hazard ARH Community CEO Dan Stone said.

The coalition is among seven Kentucky communities funded by the foundation's "Investing in Kentucky's Future" initiative, which is spending $3 million over five years to fund communities working to improve the health of their school-aged children. The other groups are in Breathitt, Clinton, Grant, Jefferson and McLean counties, and in Boyd and Greenup counties. Perry County was in the original announcement and recently completed its detailed plan. It shares with Breathitt and Wolfe counties the state's lowest life expectancy, 70 years.

Princess Health and Kentucky's life expectancy, a basic measure of health status, is 76; it fluctuates as many as 9 years from county to county. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Kentucky's life expectancy, a basic measure of health status, is 76; it fluctuates as many as 9 years from county to county. Princessiccia

county health health care life expectancy

Gusty 12:19 Add Comment

By Danielle Ray

Kentucky Health News

A life lived in Kentucky is expected to vary up to nine years in length depending on the county in which it's spent.

Life expectancy is perhaps the most basic measure of a community's overall health. Health researchers say life expectancy is driven by a complex web of factors that influence health: opportunities for education and jobs, safe and affordable housing, availability of nutritious food and places for physical activity, and access to health care, child care and social services.

The state average is 76 years. Twenty-four of 120 Kentucky counties exceed that figure, mostly in the counties near Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, Bardstown, Elizabethtown, Owensboro and Bowling Green, with a few exceptions. Oldham County has the state's highest life expectancy, 79 years. Nine counties (Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, Garrard, Shelby, Bullitt, Meade, Boone, and Calloway) share a life expectancy of 78.

Differences become more apparent moving east along the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway and down its KY 15 extension. In general, the starkest comparisons in the state exist between the metropolitan areas of Louisville and Lexington versus southeastern Kentucky counties. Only one Eastern Kentucky county, Morgan, has a life expectancy equal to the state�s. Others range from 70 (Perry, Breathitt and Wolfe counties) to 75, mostly found in counties in northeastern Kentucky.

Eastern Kentucky counties are not the only ones with below-average numbers. Other counties ouitside that region with life expectancies of 74 or below are Fulton, Webster, Muhlenberg, Gallatin, Carroll, Casey, Monroe, Metcalfe, Cumberland and Clinton.

The numbers are on a Kentucky life expectancy map released Monday by researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It shows that chances to lead a long and healthy life can vary dramatically by county.

�Health differences between communities are rarely due to a single cause,� the researchers said in a press release. �The health differences shown in these maps aren�t unique to one area. We see them in big cities, small towns, and rural areas across America,� said Derek Chapman, the VCU center�s associate director for research.

The map is the latest effort by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to raise public awareness of the many factors that shape health, particularly social and economic factors.

Another is the County Health Rankings, done annually by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The rankings don�t provide a comprehensive explanation for life expectancy, but they provide helpful correlations.

For example, Harlan County, with a life expectancy five years below the average, ranks 117^thin overall health outcomes and last in health factors. The county has rates of smoking, obesity and teen births that are higher than statewide. It also has less access to exercise opportunities. The rankings show that the county's unemployment rate is nearly 14 percent, more than double the state's. In addition, 43 percent of Harlan County children live in poverty, compared to the statewide figure, 26 percent.

The complete rankings are available at the County Health Rankings web site.

The state Department for Public Health says it and partners have several efforts underway to tackle the many factors that shape health:

�          Promotion of farmers� markets and their acceptance of federal food assistance benefits such as SNAP, WIC and Senior Farmers� Market Nutrition Program Vouchers, incentive programs to help with affordability and community outreach.

�          Promotion of walking and walkability by providing communities with targeted training and technical assistance to develop pedestrian plans.

�          Protecting youth from tobacco exposure through the �100 percent Tobacco Free Schools� program, which provides guidance to districts that wish to reduce tobacco use by students and staff.

Experts say local efforts are needed, too. �We must build a society where everyone, no matter where they live, the color of their skin, their financial or family situation, has the opportunity to lead a productive, healthy life,� said RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey.  �There�s no one-size-fits-all solution. Each community must chart its own course, and every person has a role to play in achieving better health in their homes, their communities, their schools and their workplaces.�

Princess Health and Women in small-town America aren't living as long as before; alcohol, drugs, food, housing, jobs, education, pollution to blame. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Women in small-town America aren't living as long as before; alcohol, drugs, food, housing, jobs, education, pollution to blame. Princessiccia

addiction drug abuse drug treatment drug use drugs federal spending life expectancy women women's health

Gusty 08:02 Add Comment

By Trudy Lieberman
Rural Health News Service

Those of us who grew up in small rural communities in the 1950s and '60s expected to have longer life spans than our parents.

The trends were in our favor. White women born in 1900 could expect to live, on average, just shy of 49 years; white men 46.6 years. Those were our grandparents and our neighbors. By 1950, life expectancy had climbed to 72 years for white women born that year and 66.5 for white men. By 2000, life expectancy was still increasing, with female babies expected to live to nearly 80 and males to almost 75.

America was on the rise, jobs were plentiful, antibiotics kept us from dying of strep throat, and polio vaccine kept us out of the iron lung. We thought things would only keep getting better. So I was dismayed to read a story in The Washington Post in April that blew holes in those childhood expectations.

The Post found �white women have been dying prematurely at higher rates since the turn of this century, passing away in their 30s, 40s, and 50s in a slow-motion crisis driven by decaying health in small town-America.�

That �small town America� was where I grew up. I contrasted the Post�s findings to the claims made by all those politicians who have told us we have the best health care in the world and who point to gobs of money lavished on the National Institutes of Health to find new cures and to hospitals promoting their latest imaging machines.

The Post found that since 2000, the health of all white women has declined, but the trend is most pronounced in rural areas. In 2000, for every 100,000 women in their late 40s living in rural areas, 228 died. Today it�s 296.

If the U.S. really has the best healthcare, why are women dying in their prime, reversing the gains we�ve made since I was a kid? After all, mortality rates are a key measure of the health of a nation�s population.

Post reporters found, however, that those dismal stats probably have less to do with health care � which we like to define today as the latest and greatest technology and insurance coverage albeit with high deductibles � and more to do with what health experts call �the social determinants of health,� such basics as food, housing, employment, air quality, and education.

Landmark studies examining the health of British civil servants who all had access to health insurance under Britain�s National Health Service have found over the years that those at the lowest job levels had worse health outcomes. Some of those outcomes were related to things like work climate and social influences outside work like stress and job uncertainty.

In its analysis, the Post found that the benefits of health interventions that increase longevity, things like taking drugs to lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, are being overwhelmed by increased opioid use, heavy drinking, smoking and obesity.

Some researchers have speculated that such destructive health behaviors may stem from people�s struggles to find jobs in small communities and the �dashed expectations� hypothesis. White people today are more pessimistic about their opportunities to advance in life than their parents and grandparents were. They are also more pessimistic than their black and Hispanic contemporaries.

A 42-year-old Bakersfield, California, woman who was addicted to painkillers for a decade explained it this way: �This can be a very stifling place. It�s culturally barren,� she said. There is no place where children can go and see what it�s like to be somewhere else, to be someone else. At first, the drugs are an escape from your problems, from this place, and then you�re trapped,� she told Post reporters.

I recently heard U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy talk about his upcoming report on substance use. About 2.2 million people need help, he said, but only about one million are actually getting it. Murthy wants his report to have consequences as far reaching as the 1964 surgeon general�s report linking tobacco use to lung cancer. In 1964, Murthy noted, 42 percent of Americans smoked; today fewer than 17 percent do.

The Post story concludes that the lethal habits responsible for increasing mortality rates are cresting in small cities where the biggest manufacturer has moved overseas or in families broken by divorce or substance abuse or in the mind and body of someone doing poorly and just barely hanging on.

The Surgeon General has taken on an enormous task, but his efforts just might help the nation move its life expectancy trends back in the right direction.

What do you think is causing poor health in your community? Write to Trudy at trudy.lieberman@gmail.com.

Rural Health News Service is funded by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund and distributed by the Nebraska Press Association.