According to an extensive study of how long Americans live, Luzerne County residents have a slightly shorter life expectancy than the broad group of people in a similar sociodemographic group.

The Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, analyzed population and mortality data across the United States and concluded that there are eight distinct U.S. population groups when it comes to disparities in mortality. The Eight Americas grouping was based on race, location of the county of residence, population density, race-specific county per capita income and homicide rates. Researchers then estimated life expectancy for each of the Eight Americas.

In Luzerne County, where 97 percent of the population is white and nearly 2 percent black, the white population falls into an America the Harvard study defines as Middle America, the largest group accounting for 214 million people in the U.S. who have an average per capita income of $24,640 and about 84 percent of whom completed high school. The black population in Luzerne County falls into an America the Harvard study defines as Black Middle America, the second largest group accounting for 23.4 million people, with an average $15,412 per capita income and 75 percent completing high school.

Besides Middle America and Black Middle America, the other groups in the Eight Americas study were Asian, Northland Low-Income Rural White (whites in the northern plains and Dakotas with low incomes), Low-Income Whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley, Western Native American, Southern Low-Income Rural Black and High-Risk Urban Black.

The average life expectancy for Middle America was 77 years, while in Luzerne County it was about a year less. Among the groups, life expectancy ranged from 69 years for black males to nearly 87 years for Asian females.

"The findings on persistent health disparities in the eight Americas raise the question of why, as a society, we have failed to narrow health gaps between distinct and large subgroups of the U.S. population," researchers wrote in the study. One suggestion researchers made was to design public health strategies to target health risks in certain communities.

One such strategy is the Luzerne County initiative Steps to a Healthier Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. The program was developed when Luzerne County was targeted as needing help with health issues by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The goal of the program is to empower people in the county to embrace healthy lifestyles and reduce the occurrence of asthma, diabetes and obesity by promoting good nutrition, physical activity and tobacco avoidance.

Steps Luzerne County director Carol Hussa said that Pennsylvania overall has higher than national averages of people with chronic diseases, and the number of uninsured is increasing, adding to disparities in health among people of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

"You don't need a study to tell you there are disparities," Hussa said. "Without looking deeper, you can see differences regionally and ethnically. You can see where there are a lot of things that cause disparity, such as access to resources."

Many employed Pennsylvania residents of different races do not have health insurance, Hussa said. And an increasingly diverse population in Luzerne County - including growing numbers of Latinos in the Wilkes-Barre area - also pose various opportunities and challenges, she said.

"Health insurance is not the guarantee it once was for the employed. And there will be more disparities if the nation does not address the health care crisis," Hussa said.

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