According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in 737 U.S. counties out of more than 3,000, life expectancies for women declined between 1997 and 2007. Setbacks on this scale have not been seen in the U.S. since the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, according to demographers.
The backsliding for women began before 1997, but researchers find it has accelerated in the last decade. Experts say smoking and obesity are partly to blame. The number of Americans who are classified as obese hit 34 percent in 2010, more than double the rate in 1980.
Los Angeles County has among the highest life expectancies in the country despite a poverty rate above the national average. Countywide, women live more than a year longer than they do nationally, and men live more than eight months longer on average. This may be evidence of what demographers and public health officials call the "Hispanic paradox," a long recognized phenomenon in which Latino immigrants are generally healthier than non-Latinos of similar income.
Nearly half of Los Angeles County's 10 million residents are Latino, and more than a third are foreign born, according to census data. By contrast, less than a sixth of the population nationally is Latino, and less than an eighth is foreign born.
One explanation of that phenomenon is that the people who become immigrants tend to be healthy. But David Hayes-Bautista, who heads the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA, said other factors, including social support networks, diet and even physical labor, may play a role as well, because not all immigrants have such good health outcomes as Latinos.
Source: Los Angeles Times, “Life expectancy of U.S. women slips in some regions”, by Levey, Noam, June 15, 2011.