Danville life expectancy now less than national average

By Sarah Arkin

Published: April 23, 2008

Living in Danville may be hazardous to your health, according to a recent study.
While medical advances have increased life expectancy in the United States, a study published this week in the online peer-reviewed Public Library of Science Medicine finds Danville among a handful of communities seeing a reversal to that trend.
Overall life expectancy in the U.S. increased more than seven years for men and more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000, statistics show.
But as overall numbers are increasing, so is what the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington call “mortality inequality” — the gap in longevity between residents of best-off and worst-off areas. And, contrary to traditional gender figures, females are leading the trend.
Mortality rates for 4 percent of the male population and 19 percent of the female population either stagnated or declined, beginning in the 1980s.
Nationally, between 1983 and 1999, men’s life expectancy rose 3.1 years to 74.1 years and women could expect to live to about 79.6, rising by 1.3 years. In the same years, life expectancy for men in Danville dropped by 2.5 years to 68.5 and women’s life expectancy, dropping three years, was about 76.5
Along with smoking, chronic conditions including obesity and related diseases and lung disease, seem to be the leading factors bringing life expectancy down for certain communities.
“The picture for women is largely diabetes, hypertension, obesity related and smoking related,” said Ari Friedman of Harvard, co-author of the study. “The picture for men (especially) in counties like Danville is much more driven by HIV/AIDS and homicide.”

Risk factors
Women have traditionally lived longer than men, but researchers believe societal influences may be driving their longevity down.
“The pattern of smoking across … developed countries is first male smoking rose and then female smoking rose,” Friedman said. “We think what we’re seeing here in the high rates of sort of smoking in particular related diseases is a lagged mortality among females.
“Women smoking in the U.S. really peaked sometime in the 70s and 80s, and the mortality from that follows by about 20 or 30 years.”
Local experts suggest there are probably socio-economic factors at play as well. Rampant layoffs in Danville over the past decade haven’t helped community health.
Kay Crane, chief executive officer of Piedmont Access to Health Services, said “people, women in particular, have gone for a long period without health insurance.”
There is “no preventative care, they don’t get annual OB-GYN check-ups,” she said.

Unhealthy trends
Crane said she sees trends in line with the Harvard study’s conclusion.
“As unemployment goes up, the number of uninsured increases,” Crane said.
One in five Virginia adults and one in 11 Virginia children were uninsured last year, according to the Virginia Health Care Foundation.
“Without health care access,” Crane said, “it does not take that long before health starts to deteriorate.”
She said the decrease in health care can lead to diseases.
“Without a doubt, the three most common would be hypertension, diabetes and even some COPD (breathing diseases),” Crane said.
Friedman agrees.
“The broader social forces … can’t help the situation,” he said.

County faring better
While Danville’s life expectancy dropped, Pittsylvania County is doing “reasonably well,” Friedman said. Life expectancy for women went up four years between 1983 and 1999, while men were living five years longer in the same years.
“Generally for women that defies the trend of higher urbanization and rural areas doing worse,” Friedman said.
Southside Virginia in general didn’t fare too well. In Radford and Pulaski County, women’s life expectancy dropped by 5.8 years to 73 years.
“Life expectancy decline is something that has traditionally been considered a sign that the health and social systems have failed, as has been the case in parts of Africa and Eastern Europe,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and co-author of the study. “The fact that is happening to a large number of Americans should be a sign that the U.S. health system needs serious rethinking.”
• Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.