While a study listed McKean County as one of the Pennsylvania’s
counties with shortest life expectancy, things are not as bad as it
seems, according to a local rural health official.

McKean County ranked No. 66 – beat only by Philadelphia County –
in having the worse life expectancy.

According to a study by Harvard University Initiative for Global
Health and Harvard School of Public Health, McKean County residents
have a life expectancy of 75.7 years, second to Philadelphia
County, who had the shortest life expectancy at 72.3 years.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Centre County has the highest life
expectancy at 79.4 years.

The life expectancy in neighboring counties are 76.9 in Cameron,
77.4 in Elk and 76.9 in Potter. Around the country, Hawaii had the
greatest life expectancy at 83.2 years; the District of Columbia
was worse at 72 years.

According to the lead researcher, it is all in how one looks at
the data.

“Many health researchers focus on income, infant mortality,
violence, HIV/AIDS and lack of insurance to explain these
differences, but only a small fraction of the variation is due to
those five factors,” said Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray, director of
the Harvard Initiative for Global Health.

Murray was surprised to find that lack of health insurance
explained only a small portion of those gaps. Instead, differences
in alcohol and tobacco use, blood pressure, cholesterol and obesity
seemed to drive death rates. These are the same issues that plague
McKean County, according to Dr. Lorraine Ettaro, interim director
of the Center for Rural Health Practice at the University of
Pittsburgh at Bradford.

But while the situation seems dire for McKean County, Ettaro
said the county actually measures pretty evenly with other counties
and people should look beyond a given number.

Instead of looking at the one number, which Ettaro said makes
for “good headlines,” people should look at the range for the life
expectancy. In those cases, McKean County is not alone. In McKean
County, the range was from 75.1 to 76.5.

“There were 28 other counties that were not significantly
different,” Ettaro said. “That’s not that bad, but that’s not to
say we don’t have health issues.”

Ettaro said a program called HealthWorks is addressing health
care issues locally. Among those things are activity and
nutrition.

“For physical activity, it is more challenging to be outside,”
Ettaro said. “The winters are rough … no sidewalks.”

There’s also fewer healthy food choices available.

“It’s not just low income,” said Richard Suzman of the National
Institute on Aging, which co-funded the research. “It’s what people
eat, it’s how they behave, or simply what’s available in
supermarkets.”

Access to education is also a challenge for rural areas, Ettaro
said.

This includes not only recognizing when something is wrong, but
following through with a diagnosis – taking tests and medicine.

If the patient doesn’t understand and follow through, the
quality of care goes down, she said.

Another big risk factor is smoking, which leads to
cardiovascular problems, heart disease and a multitude of
cancers.

Ettaro also pointed to migration patterns. For instance, Hawaii
fared well because “younger older” people retire to that area.

There are also those in the population that leave after high
school and do not come back. These people “on average, have a more
favorable health risk factor.”

The phrase “location is everything” plays a part.

“Something very geographic is going on,” Murray said. “But
typical analytic methods miss that part of the story because
researchers tend to look at race, income and education, but rarely
at place.

“Some really interesting patterns aren’t related to those usual
factors,” he said. “Perhaps it is shared ancestry or the way people
make a living. The tricky part is figuring it out. It is not simply
income and race.”

Ettaro noted that much of the area above Interstate 80, mostly
rural, was at the same life expectancy and health levels.

Addressing health care in rural areas is part of Ettaro’s
work.

“We could create economic growth, but would that be sufficient,”
she said. “Other factors include understanding why people make
certain health choices. How they live their lives. Create an
environment where everyone has equal opportunity to make healthy
choices … choices for a healthier life.”