Men in Alabama die younger than women do. The average life span for a woman in Alabama is 78.2 years; the average man lives just 72.2 years. Alabama, at 75.2, has the 49th worst life expectancy in America, leading only West Virginia (74.5) and Mississippi (74.2).
Whites live longer than Blacks in Alabama. The life expectancy for a Black man in Alabama is just 69.0 years. That puts Alabama ahead of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and the District of Columbia (66.53). White life expectancy, however, is lower in Alabama at 75.95 years than in any other state except for West Virginia (75.35). While these are the averages, there are wide fluctuations between zip codes and even from one neighborhood to the next.
Dr. Azita Amiri, an associate professor with the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has been awarded a $25,000 Network of Practice Grant by the Bloomberg American Health Initiatives, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to examine life expectancy inequities in Alabama including environmental factors.
The researcher plans to use findings from the project to develop a community-centric blueprint designed to address social and environmental determinants of health in selected neighborhoods in the region.
“Evidence is convincing that social and built-environmental conditions affect health, including life expectancy, as much as genetics and other personal characteristics,” Dr. Amiri says. “In the United States, life expectancy varies widely across geographical regions, neighborhoods, and even city blocks. Equitable societies and built environments, such as access to healthcare centers or healthy food groceries, are essential for equal life expectancies.”
Fifty-five out of 67 Alabama counties are considered rural, comprising 44% of the state’s population, based on 2020 U.S. census data, and 58 of the counties are designated ‘medically underserved,’ the researcher notes. “Rural populations in Alabama suffer from an unequal distribution of resources, poverty, low literacy, environmental injustice and unequal disease burdens from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.”
The study will use life expectancy data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project to support the effort, as well as health data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“Based on the 2022 America’s Health Rankings composite measure, Alabama is ranked 45th out of 50 states in America’s Health Rankings, according to the most recent data, and among the states with the lowest life expectancy, Alabama is 49th after Mississippi,” explains Dr. Amiri. “Multiple factors, including the lack of access to care and high rates of physical inactivity, premature death, low birth weight, multiple chronic conditions, and obesity drive this poor standing.”
Dr. Amiri will be supported in this effort by Dr. Shuang Zhao of the UAH Political Sciences Department. Dr. Zhao is certified in public health policy and is a UAH Nursing Ph.D. candidate. The research will focus in particular on environmental challenges in the areas selected for study, and the findings of the initiative will be presented to state officials to propose cost-effective interventions aimed at addressing these challenges.
“Five neighborhoods with low life expectancies and high disparities will be selected, and focus group sessions for each will be arranged to discuss the problems and seek input and solutions from community members and leaders,” Dr. Amiri says.
Dr. Shima Hamidi, a Bloomberg assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, will act as faculty advisor for the project and will tour the selected areas, discuss data analysis and address community member feedback.
“Dr. Hamidi and community representatives will meet with state officials, such as the Governor, state representatives, and the head of the Alabama Department of Public Health in Montgomery to discuss proposed next steps,” Dr. Amiri says.
“We will also include socioeconomic and demographic variables in the analysis,” Dr. Amiri said. “This will include the proportion of black and other minorities, marital status, education, sex, employment status, race, income/poverty ratio, food stamp/supplemental nutrition assistance programs participants, household income, immigration status, self-care difficulty, and insurance/Medicaid coverage.”
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