Orange County residents continue to exceed state and national average life expectancies, according to a new report by the county's Health Care Agency.
An American born in 2010 has an average life expectancy of 78.7 years, but an Orange County resident born that year is forecast to live to 81.9 years. The state average is 81.4.
Aliso Viejo, pictured here during a concert in the park, has the county's highest life expectancy for a person born in 2010 of 84.1 years.
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"Orange County enjoys a very respectable life expectancy," said Curtis Condon, one of the study's authors and the agency's manager of planning and research. "It's another reason it's a great place to live."
The report is the county's second to look at local life expectancy. This time it includes data from Laguna Woods, a retirement community for people over 55. The city ranks lowest for overall life expectancy. But for residents who live to be 75, their average life span then jumps to almost 90.
Gordon Bern, a retired salesman who moved to Laguna Woods in 1975, has well exceeded that projection.
"I don't feel like 100," said Bern, who is participating in a UC Irvine aging study. "The only thing physically is my legs don't stand up like they used to, but my brain is here. I have my full faculties. I still drive my car. Of course I don't go on freeways. I go to the gym two or three times a week."
The previous report found that Orange County residents born in 2008 could expect to live 81.5 years, the latest figure showing a small increase. The data in the study came from death certificate information reported to the Health Care Agency.
Where Orange County residents live continues to make a big difference in how long they live. In general, cities in South County had the highest life expectancies and cities in Central and North County had the lowest.
Communities with higher rates of college degrees, income and health insurance coverage had longer life expectancies.
The report says, "Those living in less affluent cities tend to have limited access to health care, more uninsured, fewer opportunities to engage in healthy behaviors, and fewer resources. Increased access to health care and reduced premature mortality due to preventable causes would help reduce disparities and increase life expectancy in Orange County."
Dr. Lisa Gibbs, a UC Irvine geriatrician and medical director of the Senior Health Center, said access to health care is important to life span. She said Orange County is fortunate to have a number of agencies and nonprofit organizations that address aging issues.
"Sometimes it's not all about socioeconomic status," Gibbs said. "There are plenty of older people that don't have access to care because they're isolated. They may not have transportation. They may have some dementia or depression. They may have Medicare and health insurance but there are other factors that isolate them so they're not getting medical care."
In the last report, San Juan Capistrano had the highest expected life span of 85.2, while Buena Park was the lowest at 79.3.
"The geographic disparities are very similar to what we saw last time," Condon said.
This time, Aliso Viejo was first at 84.1. Laguna Woods was last at 78.8. In the report, researchers noted that Laguna Woods residents spend the majority of lives elsewhere, and many who move there may have chronic illness. But once Laguna Woods residents live to 75, their average life spans reach 89.4. Countywide, the average life expectancy at 75 is 87.8.
"Last time we did the report, we did not include Laguna Woods because it's kind of an unusual community," Condon said. "But so many people asked us about it, we thought we'd put it in there. But we put in this explanation about why we think it's so low compared to the rest of Orange County. That's because it is a retirement community. It's not a perfect model to look at life expectancy at birth."
Locally, Asians/Pacific Islanders had the highest life expectancy at 85, followed by Hispanics at 83.1 and whites at 80.9. Blacks were the lowest at 78.2.
Women also outlive men at the national, state and local levels by an average of four to five years. Gibbs said that, among centenarians, women outnumber men 9 to 1.
Gibbs said she sees patients who are motivated to achieve a long and healthy life.
"Sometimes it's not so much the number of years but the quality within those years that are more important to people," Gibbs said. "Our patients are very engaged in understanding what they can do to help themselves. That can include better diets, increased exercise, following through with preventative testing and screening tests. We're very fortunate in our population we have a relationship with patients and they're very interested in working with us."
To read the report, go to ochealthinfo.com.
Contact the writer: 714-796-3686 or cperkes@ocregister.com
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Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/life-494911-county-health.html
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