ALARMING TREND:
Improvement Rate of Life
Expectancy is at a Very Slow Pace
A
ccording to a report by the Institute for Health Metrics
and Evaluation, a health research center at the
University of Washington, the improvement rate of
life expectancy in the United States is at an alarmingly slow
pace. The research, which is based on mortality data by age, sex
and county from 1989 to 2009, indicates that the alarming
trend is seen more among women (in 661 U.S. counties) than
in men (in 166 counties).
Life expectancy for men improved by 4.6 years on average,
but only by 2.7 years for women. Women in Fairfax, Virginia
have some of the best life expectancies, while women in
Greensville and Sussex, Virginia have some of the worst.
Among the counties that have seen declining rates are in
Oklahoma (84 percent), Tennessee (58 percent) and Georgia
(33 percent).
The research pointed out four key drivers for this
trend:
● Socio-economic inequalities
● Lack of financial access to health care
● Poor quality of care
● Preventable causes of death
The spa industry can certainly make an impact in improving
life expectancy by doubling its efforts to educate the public on
embracing a healthy lifestyle which significantly helps to
prevent lifestyle-related diseases, such as hypertension, obesity,
diabetes, cancer, heart disease, to name a few.
Go to HealthMetricsAndEvaluation.org to find out where
your county ranked in this report and identify the most
common lifestyle-diseases among your spa clients. Start by
addressing these through the treatments you offer (i.e. Mindful
Eating programs for diabetic clients or yoga packages for hypertensive spa-goers.)
September 2012
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