Calloway ranks high for Ky. life expectancy
By ROGER ALFORD
Associated Press Writer
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - People living in the eastern Kentucky coalfields, where the mining industry is the chief employer, do not live as long as their peers in the rest of the state, a report released Monday showed.
The average man in Harlan County, one of the state's primary coal counties, has a life expectancy of 67.8 years, the lowest in the state, and more than six years younger than the average Appalachian resident who lives to 75, according to a Harvard School of Public Health report.
In eastern Kentucky, men in 14 counties have life expectancies lower than 70, according to the report, which used government statistics dating from 1980 through 1999. The life span for the average Kentuckian was 75.2 over the period.
Millions of the worst-off Americans during the period have life expectancies typical of developing countries, Dr. Christopher Murray of Harvard concluded in the report. Worst off, according to the report, are American Indian men in swaths of South Dakota, who die around age 58.
Several issues factor into the reduced longevity in the Kentucky coalfields, said John Strosnider, dean of the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine, which opened 10 years ago to educate physicians to serve in the Appalachian region.
The Appalachian Regional Commission joined with local and state leaders to start the school in the medically underserved mountain region, which has just one primary care physician for every 1,200 people. That falls far short of the standard in urban areas of one for every 900 people.
Strosnider said more doctors are needed in the region, but he said the shorter life spans in Appalachia could also be linked to poverty, low educational attainment, dangerous roads and hazardous jobs, especially in the coal mines.
“Miners are going to be exposed to hazards you wouldn't be exposed to as a CPA,” Strosnider said. “They're going to be exposed to dust and the chances for injuries.”
However, Strosnider said people who live in the region also are more likely to smoke and eat unhealthy foods while being less likely to see a physician, factors that lead to higher incidences of lung cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Fran Feltner, a nurse at the Kentucky Center for Rural Health in Hazard, said men in the coalfields often don't see a doctor until they're “very sick,” even though jobs in the coal mines, coupled with smoking and overeating, create health problems that need to be dealt with early.
That, Feltner said, can contribute to shorter lives.
Women in the western Kentucky counties of Green and Larue lived the longest, according to the report. The average life expectancy for living in those areas was 80.6, followed by Jessamine County at 80.3 years old and Calloway at 80.1.
Other eastern Kentucky counties with life expectancies lower than 70 for men include Clay, Floyd, Knott, Knox, Lawrence, Leslie, Letcher, Martin, Menifee, Perry, Pike, Whitley and Wolfe.
Life expectancies in Jefferson and Fayette counties, home to the urban centers of Louisville and Lexington, increased by 2.5 years between 1980 and 1999.
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Associated Press Writer Joe Biesk in Frankfort contributed to this report.
Story created Sep 12, 2006 - 12:02:05 EDT.
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