New London County Men, Women Living Shorter Lives than Peers in Neighboring Middlesex County

By Heather Martino

Compared with neighboring Middlesex County, New London County women have an average life expectancy over a year shorter than their Middlesex County peers, while local men’s average life expectancy is just about comparable to, but still slightly shorter than that of their next-door county neighbors.

However, both men and women in New London County have extended their average life spans by at least a couple of years compared to data from 1985.

Across the country, people are also living longer than ever, according to a new study from the University of Washington, which analyzed life expectancy rates for both men and women from 1985-2010.

Throughout the US, major improvements in life expectancy occurred in areas with large metropolises, like parts of California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, New York and Virginia. But the disparity is widening, with counties in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama seeing declines or stagnations in residents’ average age of death.

Researchers also found that women were living longer than men in every county in 2010. But men are catching up, having adding 5.3 years to their lives since 1985, while women only added 3.

Even more worrisome is that 45% of women in counties nationwide are dying younger now or at the same rate than they were in 1985. So while men are living longer in counties across the country, women are remaining stagnant in much of the country.

“As a nation, what we can do about that is have a concerted effort to tackle the key preventable causes in those communities where there is no improvement,” said IHME Director Christopher Murray. He told Patch that in places where there is stagnation, local communities should “focus on changing things there that we know can make a difference, like diet, tobacco, high blood pressure and physical inactivity.”