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Study Finds Clear Reason for Disparities in Tulsa County Life Expectancies

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Where you live in Tulsa County may play a role in determining how long you live.

The Tulsa Health Department looked at life expectancy data from 2002 and from 2013. Then they did an Economic Hardship Index analysis. The index includes measures such as crowded housing, population living in poverty and low educational attainment, among others.

There’s a significant trend.

"In our study, we were able to plot the Economic Hardship Index for each ZIP code, and it's a perfect bar graph," said Tulsa Health Department Director Bruce Dart. "The higher that Economic Hardship Index, the lower the life expectancy, all throughout Tulsa County."

ZIP codes like 74130 — some neighborhoods in north Tulsa — lag nine years behind the national average and 12 years behind Tulsa County ZIP codes with the lowest EHI scores. It will take a lot of work to level the playing field.

"What are we going to do as a community to impact poverty all across Tulsa County? To ensure all of our children have at least a high school education?" Dart said. "Let's look at our transportation needs. You know, if people can't get to the place they need to go, that has a negative impact on their quality of life and their ability to be healthy."

The study also found the life expectancy gap between some of Tulsa County’s richest and poorest residents has narrowed. The difference between ZIP codes 74137 in Jenks and 74126 in north Tulsa dropped from 13.8 years to 10.7 years over a decade.

Dart said a concerted effort to increase access to healthcare gave north Tulsa a boost.

"OU came together and built the Wayman Tisdale specialty care center. Tulsa Health Department built the North Regional Health Center in that ZIP code," Dart said. "Crossover Health Services now has primary care. Morton has a facility, and many other things like that."

The 74126 ZIP code also saw the greatest increase in life expectancy, but it’s still about seven years behind the county and national averages.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.