If we want to improve overall health, one thing we have to do is improve overall economic well-being," Sweat said. "It's the most important predictor of health status. Collierville and Bartlett had the lowest economic hardship score.
#Life after death zip zip
In addition to suffering poverty rates of 42 and 60 percent, respectively, ZIP codes 3816 have by far the highest "economic hardship index," a measure that also considers unemployment, low education levels and crowded housing, according to the Health Department. Not surprisingly, the pattern that emerged most clearly was a correlation between economic conditions and life expectancy. East Memphis, Cordova, Arlington, Germantown and Collierville had rates between 79.22 and 82.59 years. In North Memphis, Frayser, South Memphis and Southwest Memphis, residents live an average 69 to 71.5 years, while in an area from Mud Island to Hickory Hill the life expectancy is from 71.6 to 75.3 years, compared to 75.34 to 79.2 in places like Millington and Southeast Shelby County. Watch Video: Pedestrian deaths increase in Memphis What the data showed, in general, was a progression of lower to higher life-expectancy rates from the west to east ends of the county, except for parts of Downtown and Midtown. Sweat said he expected significant variations in the life-expectancy figures, but he added, "I was a little surprised by the magnitude." That single measure can mask differences that are meaningful." "We had a sense that didn't tell the whole story. "If you just ran numbers for the county as a whole, we're about average for the state of Tennessee," said David Sweat, chief of epidemiology and infectious diseases at the Health Department. More than 8,000 people a year die in the county, with heart disease and cancer accounting for nearly half of those deaths.īut Health Department officials several years ago began to delve deeper into the numbers to get a more localized look. The variation in life expectancy locally mirrors a nationwide trend, one so pervasive that some researchers call it "death by ZIP code."Ī study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association network last year surveyed mortality data nationwide from 1980 to 2014 and concluded that inequities in life-expectancy rates from county to county are "large and growing." Among other causes, they blame socioeconomic factors, differences in metabolic-disease risks among ethnic groups and behavioral issues.įor Shelby County as a whole, the life-expectancy rate in 2013 was 76.2 years compared to the 76.3 figure for all of Tennessee. Scott Morris, founder and CEO of Church Health. "Your ZIP code determines your health outcomes more than your genetic code," said Dr. Although a mere 20 miles separate South Memphis and Collierville, the gap between them, in terms of their life-expectancy rates, is akin to the difference between Cambodia and Norway. In the starkest of terms, the life-expectancy numbers illustrate the vast disparities in health care and health conditions within Greater Memphis. That's the lowest life-expectancy of any area in Shelby County and more than 13 years below the 82.59-year average lifespan in the healthiest ZIP code, 38017, which encompasses Collierville. Studies by Health Department officials found that residents in 38106 and neighboring 38126 - a swath of South Memphis stretching from Beale Street to Nonconnah Creek containing nearly 35,000 people - were living an average of just 69.01 years as of 2015.
#Life after death zip code
Statistically, Brown's concerns are justified based just on where he lives: ZIP code 38106. "I worry about it a lot," Brown says of his long-term health prospects. He has no insurance and can't afford to go the doctor, relying instead on visits to the emergency room at Regional Medical Center when illness strikes. Brown also lacks ready access to health care.