The Early Deaths of Appalachians

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

At the Reger Funeral Home & Chapel in Huntington, West Virginia, owner Patrick Reger says he increasingly sees 50-somethings dying of diseases—like cirrhosis of the liver or lung cancer—that used to mostly kill 80-somethings.

There seems to be an uptick young people drinking heavily and using drugs. “There’s just a lack of employment for people,” he said. “That’s where you find the problems with the drugs. There’s nothing to do.”



The trend he’s seen is playing out across the region: Appalachia, the mountainous region home to about 8 percent of Americans, is falling behind the rest of the United States in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

For the study, the authors, Gopal Singh and Michael Kogan from the Health Resources and Services Administration and Rebecca Slifkin from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, compared deaths data from the period between 1990 and 1992 and between 2009 and 2013, the most recent years available, in the swath of 428 counties that make up Appalachia. They examined life expectancy and infant mortality—two well-established measures of overall public health.

In the early ’90s, the study authors found, the region’s infant mortality rate was about identical to that of the rest of the country, but between 2009 and 2013, it was 16 percent higher. Similarly, in 1992, the average Appalachian had a life expectancy of about 75.2 years, just half a year shorter than the average American. By the 2009 to 2013 study period, the disparity had grown to 2.4 years. In the intervening time—nearly two decades that saw the advent of DNA sequencing and other medical advancements—life expectancy increased by 2.4 years for women outside of Appalachia, but by just a fraction of a year for Appalachian women.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-early-deaths-of-appalachians/ar-AApDZNG?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=edgsp

[haveahart]

1. These people were hard core anti-government regulation, anti-government health care, anti government

There was a plan out there to invest money in Appalachia that was rejected when they wouldn't support HRC. They want and need healthcare but continue bash Obamacare because many of them do not understand that th insurance they now have is probably Obamacare by the name ACA or something else. About 98% of residents are on some form of government subsidy or benefit and do not realize it's the Federal government that they despise.

[Blue_Adept]

2. It's like a splinter group of humanity that's simply going to die off

An evolutionary dead end where it's all about "rugged individualism" and distrust of others in an age of cooperation as we should be moving toward unifying and the stars.

[Squinch]

3. If Hillary had been elected and her economic plans for the coal region there had

been implemented, they'd be sitting on a goldmine.

But she's a girl. So they said no to it.

[smirkymonkey]

4. I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for these people.

They have voted for their own demise and they are reaping what they have sowed. I'm not sure they will ever wake up.

[OnDoutside]

5. This is what Freedum looks like.....

[d_r]

6. time intervals

The study here describes change between two blocks of years:

1990 and 1992 and between 2009 and 2013,

The county map - and that is a broad definition of "Appalachia" is from 2003-5 data.

But in the study, the authors compared outcomes from the 428 counties that are mapped with the rest of the country (at the two time points), and this article reports that some differences were greater at time 2 (2009-2013) than at time 1 (1990-2); but I have no idea if these differences are statistically significant or meaningful in any way.

I would have suggested that the authors compare between the five groups identified as "Appalachia" in in the sample. Are there differences between the counties that are described as Distressed and those classified as competitive and attainment? (I am sure that there are, but it would be a more meaningful and useful comparison).

[d_r]

7. but even that is pretty much BS

because it is simply comparing more urban counties with more rural. I mean look at the light blue and blue areas in the south east - Birmingham and Huntsville, AL., Atlanta, GA., Chattanooga TN., Knoxville/Oak Ridge TN., Ashville, NC,. Raliegh-Durham, NC., etc.

So basically, the story is that poor, rural areas did not fair well in the 90's and early 2000s; it would have been much more useful to just make those comparisons.