Young Wives Live Shorter Lives

Why The Age we Act is Important

Age is a fickle fiend. Chronologically, it is a number. Biologically, it is represented physiologically. Healthwise, it can be counted by the number of ailments a person suffers. Emotionally, it is how we feel. So what is age really? It is all of these things.

Most often, we think of age in terms of the number. If you are asked your age you are more likely to say "I am 35" than "I am beginning to get wrinkles" or "I have high blood pressure but am otherwise healthy." It is simply normal to think of our age in the most simple of ways. But the older we get, the more we realize that people that are the same numerical age as we are can appear quite different.

Let's for now examine age in a different way: social behaviors. What I mean is let's think about age in terms of the way that we interact with others. I will use the simple example of parenthood. Let's compare two theoretical women. Woman A marries at 22 and has a child at 24, woman B marries at 35 and has her first child at 38.

It turns out the children of these two women were born in the same year and attend school together with several other children. A group of 10 children become friends in Kindergarten and as a result, their moms become friends as well. The average age of these moms is 35; woman A is 29 and woman B is 43.

We now have a social group of moms who range in age from 29-43. Despite the fact that numerically they are all different ages, their lives center around similar activities and they are all very engrossed in being mothers of young children. Let's assume that these moms all join the Parent Teacher Association and become very close. In a social sense, these women behave the same and they all feel the age that emotionally corresponds to being a new mom. The "average" new mom in this group is 35 and so all of the moms more or less act in a way consistent with being about 35. The 29 year old feels older than her numeric age and the 43 year old feels younger.

Over time it will become more and more apparent that people will act consistently with the age that they feel. Feeling younger than you really are will help keep you healthier because you will be doing "young" activities which tend to be more active while acting older will start to slow you down! Effectively, Woman B who had her child at 38 will be more likely to live a longer life than Woman A who had her child at 24.

Don't believe me? Check out this study by the University of Michigan!

Universal Healthcare will keep us Alive Longer

Healthcare Increases Life Expectancy

To finish my series on healthcare and life expectancy, I wanted to write one more article about heath insurance. First I should start by saying that the United States is among one of the only developed countries without universal healthcare. In this same group of countries, our life expectancy numbers appear low and our growth has been much slower.

People can engage in political battles over "Obamacare," Medicare and Medicaid and I will not pass judgement. I just want to provide some information that might help you to form your opinion. I want to show you on a county by county basis what percentages of Americans lack health insurance. When I say lack health insurance, I will give a real world example. You feel a lump in your arm and are concerned so you go to the doctor. The doctor tells you that she needs to run some blood work and remove a piece of your lump for a biopsy. The blood work will cost $450 and the biopsy $900. You have a car that costs $300 per month and your mortgage costs $1,000. What will you buy this month?

Now, let's take a look at the numbers.

Notice anything? The Northeast and Midwest seem to have the best rates of health insurance coverage. Notice the South, specifically Florida, Texas and New Mexico. Many parts of these states have between 30 - 50% uninsured residents!

Now my favorite graph of life expectancy by county. Take a good look at this if you haven't already seen it in my last two articles.

Look at these maps on a county by county basis and notice the general trends. Higher rates of health insurance coverage tend to mean longer life expectancy. I feel that it is generally safe to infer that as "Obamacare" takes effect, people currently without insurance will start to live longer.

One more quick thing I want to discuss is the fact that America wastes billions of dollars each year on health related costs, much of this waste is generated because not everyone has access to preventative care. If the health insurance system functions properly, Americans will have access to preventative care and tax money will be saved on costly late in the game procedures that are used to save lives.

How a Fat Paycheck Can Buy You 20 More Years of Life

Wealthier American Live Longer

Yesterday I wrote about how Americans in some parts of the country live for 82 years, while in other parts only live for about 62 years, if you need a refresher check out my post here. Today I plan on overlaying life expectancy statistics with those of other factors such as income and obesity. I will start by showing the change in life expectancy over time.

1985 Life Expectancy

2010 Life Expectancy

The first thing that I want to point out is the dramatic change in the map between 1985 and 2010, sort of. In almost every area of the country, life expectancy rose by over ten years during this period. But now focus on Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and notice that these numbers barely budged. In a few counties in these states, life expectancy actually declined in the 25 year period.

Obesity statistics are not as widely available for the whole country dating back to 1985, but even the following map from 2010 should be telling.

American Obesity by County 2010

Notice that the three states with the lowest life expectancies are also the states shown in the darkest red coloring on this new map. In red counties, more than a third of adults are obese; if we include people who are simply overweight this number approaches 70%. It appears that obesity does directly relate to shorter life expectancies. America has become more obese over time and much of the increase has been concentrated in the south. It seems as though some of the gains in medical technologies nationwide are being offset in the south by increasing obesity rates.

Finally let's examine income. This map is from 2008 and shows median income by county. I think you will notice a trend here.

2008 Median Income by County

Once again it appears clear that there is an almost direct relationship between higher incomes and longer life. Almost all of the counties with life expectancies below 70 in the United States fall below average on the median income scale. 

One way to tie all of this together is the fact that it is much cheaper to buy unhealthy food than healthy food. People living on lower incomes are more likely to eat cheaper and thus less healthy which in turn can correlate with a spike in obesity. If you want to learn more about obesity and food access, check out this link.

To continue this series on health, I will further investigate medical costs and differences within healthcare itself and report back tomorrow with more information.

American Geographic Health Gap

Regional Differences in Life Expectancy

When considering life expectancy, numbers are usually quoted at a national basis. For example, the United States has a life expectancy of 78.64 years, currently ranked #33 in the world. Japan, country #1 has a life expectancy of about 83 years, while country #100 has a life expectancy of about 71.5 years. The spread from 1 to 100 is only slightly more than 10 years, which does not seem like much. But what happens when we examine life expectancy on a more localized basis? The findings in the United States may surprise you.

We live as long as the Japanese and as short as the Haitians!

2010 United States Life Expectancy by County

Take a moment to really look at this map and digest this. In the wealthiest healthiest parts of the country, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston and Colorado, Americans live for more than 82 years. But in the South, particularly in the Mississippi River Valley and throughout Appalachia, the average person only lives to about 62.

We saw a gap of just over 10 years in the life expectancies of the top 100 countries. But within the United States, we could be as high as #1 or as low as #155, all depending on geography. These staggering numbers are just another example of how inequality ravages the United States, dividing people not just by race, wealth or education, but also by likelihood of living to see their 80th birthday.

Stay tuned for another post tomorrow that further examines life expectancy and how it relates to other factors.

Why Wealthier Couples Have Fewer Children

The costs of raising a child from birth through age eighteen are staggering. This year the estimated cost of raising a newborn from birth to age 18 tops $250,000. This number does not account for financial support that parents may and often do provide later in life such as the cost of a college education, which bring the total to well over $300,000. One might assume these high costs may indicate a positive correlation between economic status and number of children; however, the inverse is actually true.

Despite the high economic cost to child raising, lower income households throughout the United States and abroad all tend to have more children than households of higher income levels. This type of contrast between expectations and statistical realities serves as a reminder to perform deeper analysis of conditions before drawing conclusions. In this case, there are a number of confounding variables that upon consideration, indicate the likelihood for wealthier couples to have fewer children.

Higher Education Levels: There is a positive relationship between education and income. This means that people who have higher incomes are more likely to have spent extra years pursuing education than those with lower incomes. Increasing the duration of full-time academic pursuits pushes back the start date for careers. Delaying working tends to delay marriage which in turn pushes back the age at which at a highly educated woman is likely to have her first child. Ultimately the gap between marriage and menopause decreases therefore giving an educated women fewer opportunities to have children. Less educated and lower income women tend to have a longer period available for the "traditional" process of career, marriage and children.

Better Planning: Women who have higher incomes tend to have better access to contraceptive measures. In higher income brackets, women are more likely to have health insurance and thus more likely to have more options in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Higher income women of higher education levels are also more likely to be aware of the cost of raising children and are thus likely to place stricter limits on the number of children they plan to have.

Less Need: Historically, one reason for having children was to ensure that parents would be taken care of as they aged. Women would have many children conscious of the fact that some may not live to see adulthood. As mortality rates dropped both for infants and adults, having numerous children increased the likelihood that one or several of these children could support aging parents. Higher income families are more likely to have the financial resources to provide for themselves into old age and so the idea of relying on children for financial support is less material.

It is unclear whether families make the choice to have fewer children simply because they are wealthier or if being wealthy is a causative factor for having fewer children. No matter which direction is the cause, this relationship likely explains the slow decline in the number of children per family throughout the world. Eventually this may slow the rate of global population growth and even out age pyramids for countries with large imbalances.

Why Optimistic People Live Longer

Comparing life expectancy to life outlook has always been a topic of debate. Some people claim that optimists live long and healthy lives while others feel that pessimists will outlive their brighter counterparts. It is true that pessimists are more likely to take time to plan for negative events, but optimists do a much better job at handling adverse situations. Here are some reasons which may reinforce the claim that optimists live longer. 

Increased Relationships: Optimists tend to have more deep and lasting friendships than do pessimists. People like to surround themselves with others who can bring up their mood and help them out through times of distress. Having a strong social network can help even the most optimistic people get through tough life events. Pessimists who are less likely to have these strong relationships are more likely to weather tough events on their own.

Less Stress: Pessimists spend a lot of time planning for bad events and uncertainty, but all of this planning can lead to stress and chronic anxiety. Focusing on worst case scenarios is always emotionally draining. People who are more stressed are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure or experience heart attacks. Stress can also negatively affect metabolism, so those who are more stressed may also be at increased risk of obesity. Those who are stressed are more likely to become sick and are often less capable of warding off disease.

Better Balance: Optimistic people are easier to please and satisfy than many pessimists. As a result many optimists find satisfaction from simple things and may worry less about becoming rich and having material possessions than pessimists. This leads optimists to be less likely to overwork themselves and more likely to have extra time to devote to living healthy and more balances lives.

While studies will probably continue to churn out conflicting information about the life expectancies of optimists vs. pessimists, I feel that these factors give optimists an edge.