L.A. County residents living longer, but old disparities persist

Los Angeles County residents are living longer than ever — and about than 2.6 years longer than the average American — with a life expectancy of more than 80 years, public health officials announced Tuesday. But economic and racial disparities persist, with some minorities and low-income residents dying younger than wealthier neighbors.

The average life expectancy in the county was 80.3 years,according to a Department of Public Health analysis of county mortality data for 2006, the most recent year available. Since 1991, the first year such information was available, the average life expectancy has steadily increased from 75.8 years.

Professor E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, said the county’s wealthier, healthier residents probably skewed the average life expectancy higher.

“We have a lot of affluence in Los Angeles County,” he said. “It may not always seem that way; certainly when the economy is down, everybody feels the pinch. The reality is we live very well here.”

Women in L.A. County live an average of 82.9 years, men 77.6. Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of premature death for both sexes, followed by homicide for men and breast cancer for women.

Asian and Pacific Islander women had the longest average life expectancy, 86.9 years, and black men had the shortest, 69.4, according to the study.

Public health officials examined life expectancy in 103 cities and unincorporated areas of the county with populations of more than 15,000. They also assessed each of the 15 L.A. City Council districts.

Of the cities, La Cañada Flintridge had the highest life expectancy, 87.8 years, and Compton had the lowest, 75.7.

“To identify continuing wide gaps between wealthy and less wealthy communities and between different ethnic groups is sobering and disconcerting,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county director of Public Health, in a Tuesday statement.

Fielding said he was particularly troubled to see residents of low-income areas such as Westmont dying much younger than those in wealthier areas nearby, such as Culver City. Westmont, an unincorporated community east of Inglewood, had the lowest life expectancy, 72.4, of any community surveyed.

“Why should an unincorporated community in South L.A. have an average life expectancy that is 10 years lower than a city only 10 miles away?” Fielding said.

Fielding said he believed that people in low-income areas may experience shortened lifespans as a result of a lack of access to quality medical care, but that other factors were more important, including a lack of education, jobs, healthy food, and parks and other places to exercise.

“Certainly healthcare is important, but it does not overall contribute as much as the social, economic and physical environments,” Fielding said.

Brown, the UCLA professor, agreed.

“The social and economic conditions in which people live have a huge impact on their health and life expectancy,” he said.

Eliminating homicides, the leading cause of premature death among black males in L.A. County, would probably “have the greatest impact in reducing the disparity in life expectancy between black males and males of other racial/ethnic groups,” according to the authors of the report. Black men’s life expectancy, at 69.4 years, is the lowest of any group by nearly eight years.

Communities with the highest life expectancy included Agoura Hills (83.4 years), Arcadia (84.7 years), Beverly Hills (85.6 years), East San Gabriel (85 years), Rowland Heights (85.3 years) and Walnut (86.6 years).

In addition to Compton and Westmont, communities with the lowest life expectancy included Florence-Graham (76.7 years), Inglewood (77 years), Lancaster (76 years), Lynwood (77.7 years), Willowbrook (75.6 years) and Los Angeles’ Council District 8 (75.2), the South L.A. area represented by Bernard C. Parks.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com