Posted on 10/07/2006 9:38:22 PM PDT by Coleus
Even the leader of a new Harvard University study on longevity was surprised to find that Asian-American women living in Bergen County have the longest life expectancy in the nation, typically reaching age 91. "Yes, it's surprising and interesting," said Dr. Christopher Murray, a population health specialist at the Harvard School of Public Health. "I was very surprised that it was Bergen County, as opposed to Asian-American women living in a whole series of well-to-do counties in California," Murray said in a phone interview Monday. More surprising, Murray found, were the stark health disparities in the nation that make the United States seem more like what he calls "eight Americas" instead of one. The initial results of his government-funded study were reported this week in the online science journal PLoS Medicine. The Asian women in Bergen, for example, lived an average of 33 years longer than American Indian men in parts of South Dakota, who die around age 58, the study found.
BY THE NUMBERS Asian-American women in Bergen County, ages 21 and older: Population: 37,500 Median household income*: $92,700 Education: College degree or better: 60% High school diploma (no college degree): 32% Less than high school diploma: 8% Occupation: Management/professional: 35% Sales/office: 23% Citizen: 51% Married: 73% Percentages may add up to more than 100 as a result of rounding. *adjusted for inflation Source: 2000 U.S. Census/ staff analysis by Dave Sheingold * * *
ASIANS IN BERGEN All Asians* 118,918 Korean 43,989 |
New Jersey, where life expectancy is 77.5 years, ranks 23rd- highest among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Where people live, combined with race and income, are huge factors in why millions of the worst-off Americans have life expectancies typical of developing countries, Murray concluded. Asian-American women, for example, can expect to live 13 years longer than low-income black women in the rural South -- and 21 years longer than inner-city black men -- who have life expectancies similar to those in Third-World nations, the study found.
Health disparities are widely considered the result of minorities and the poor being unable to find or afford good medical care. Murray's county-by-county comparison of life expectancy shows that the reality is far more complex. Despite its long-lived Asian-American women residents, Bergen was not among the top 25 counties nationally for high life expectancy overall. This is because just 11.6 percent of Bergen County residents are Asian, while 82 percent are white and 6 percent are black, Murray said. The Asian-Americans in the study included immigrants and second-generation residents, he said.
Howard Shih, manager of census information at the Asian American Federation of New York, wondered whether wealth plays as much of a role in longevity as ethnic background. "I don't know if it's particularly being Asian or being well-off that's driving those numbers," he said. Each Asian subgroup seems to have a different explanation for its longevity. Raw tuna and green tea keep the Japanese alive, said Hiroyuki Gunji, a chef at Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket in Edgewater. East Indians depend on a diet heavy on vegetables and low on red meat, said Ravi Mehrotra, president of the Asian Indian Association of New Jersey. Prayer is the key for Filipinos, many of whom are Roman Catholic, said Nora Trivino, a member of the Filipino American Society of Teaneck. The Korean secret to long life is obvious, said Ji Yun Yoo of Fort Lee. "It has to be kimchi," she quipped. Florence Chen, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, even speculated that Bergen's diversity could help account for longevity. "Bergen County is very racially diverse," said Chen, who recently moved to Somerset County from Tenafly. "Maybe it's easier to be a minority, than, say, in Iowa." Murray analyzed census and mortality data from 1982 to 2001 by county, race, gender and income. He found some distinct groups that he called the "eight Americas": Asian-Americans, with an average per-capita income of $21,566, have a life expectancy of 84.9 years.
Disparities were most pronounced in young and middle-age adults. A 15-year-old urban black man was 3.8 times more likely to die before age 60 than an Asian-American, for example. Genetic inheritance does not appear to play a large role in these health disparities, Murray said. "The difference we observe in these groups is due to levels of chronic disease in young and middle-age adults, and almost all of that is due to tobacco, alcohol, obesity, cholesterol and diet," he said.
For now, the study has shown, "we have to put our energy into tackling the problem of chronic disease in young and middle-aged adults," he said. Murray's study is important, but not specific enough, said Diane Brown of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The degree of neighborhood racial segregation and environmental exposure, such as industrial waste and pollution in a community, also influences longevity, said Brown, executive director of the Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities at the UMDNJ School of Public Health in Newark. "I'm saying there are other factors that also need to be considered," she said. "It doesn't allow us to fully understand all the variation that occurs within the population of the counties." This article includes material from The Associated Press.
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Prayer is the key for Filipinos, many of whom are Roman Catholic, said Nora Trivino, a member of the Filipino American Society of Teaneck.
I'd rather die than eat kimchi. I'm sorry but there it is.
Among men generally, a group of counties between Minneapolis on the north, the Iowa border on the south, exending west into the Dakotas and east into Wisconsin, have the highest life expectancy.
I know these guys. They're long on fried chicken, coffee, brandy, potatoes with unbelievable amounts of gravy, and don't neglect the "snoose" either. They sit by the fire in the winter or hang out at the bar. They are happy and generous, not overly educated, and vote Republican as often as not. If you tried to serve them tofu and green tea, they'd think you lost your mind. If you tried to serve them raw tuna, they would lock you up.
Go figure.
Funny how the article describes this as a "third-world" life expectancy. Is there something in the style book that says every article has to include a certain number of politically-motivated flat-out lies?
It's taught in "journalism" school. Agenda 301.
Must be, because the majority of articles seem to include at least one, er ... "deliberate skew."
Yep, the standard "Women & Minorities Hardest Hit". It;s the reason Katrina is considered such a disaster whereas Rita is hardly an asterisk in the pages of MSM coverage history. It's the agenda. Make conservatives look inept & evil.
Great example. In this case, of course, they couldn't use the "women" part, since the women are living practically forever ... "minority" women, too, but the wrong kind of minority.
Wouldn't it be amazing to see "Minority Women Have Longest Lifespans!" as the headline :-).
LOL! I missed that thread when you posted it.
The sample size is larger than I thought it would be...even so it might be a stretch to assume that today's generation of Asian women in Bergen County will live to age 91 given that the day before yesterday's generation is living to that age....the data files are rather huge...I'll have to get back to you on that one.
Thanks. I used to work for an insurance company, so I'm familiar with the vagaries of mortality/morbidity statistics.
Glad you saw it.
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