Life Is Longer in L.A. County, Where Death Rates Drop by 26%, Study Finds

Los Angeles County death rates have dropped by 26% in the last decade, giving county residents a life expectancy two years greater than the national average, according to data released Wednesday by the county Department of Health Services.

Despite the fact that medical advances and prevention programs are helping to stave off chronic illnesses such as heart disease and strokes, those remain the leading causes of death in Los Angeles County, according to the study.

Disparities in mortality rates among ethnic groups persist as well, with blacks in 2000 dying at three times the rate of Asians and Latinos and 1 1/2 times the rate of whites.

A major factor in these disparities is that blacks and whites tend to smoke more than Asians and Latinos, researchers said. Nutrition, stress and genetics also play a role.

The report examined data from 1991 to 2000 to help officials target disease prevention strategies and health care services.

“We are now reaping the harvest of some changes in personal health habits that have been made over time, particularly in respect to smoking,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s director of public health.

“For every year during the past decade that we lived, we increased our average longevity by over three months,” he said.

Most of the trends mirrored those in the rest of the country, although pneumonia is a more prevalent cause of death locally than nationwide, where cancer is more common.

One reason for that difference is that Californians smoke less overall.

County mortality rates dropped for nearly every cause of death. HIV- and AIDS-related deaths plummeted 77% due to improved drug treatments, but deaths due to diabetes soared 48%, an increase that officials attributed to low levels of physical activity and growing rates of obesity.

The report shows the need for more exercise and substance abuse prevention programs, Fielding said.

“We obviously need to redouble our efforts in some areas to try to continue these declines for all populations,” he said. “For example, we have to treat substance abuse as a chronic disease rather than a character flaw.”

Although county homicide and suicide rates dipped during the 1990s by 51% and 34%, respectively, Fielding expects the recent economic downturn to prompt a reversal within the next decade.