Life expectancies across congressional districts in the United States

Aya Takai; Akhil Kumar; Rockli Kim; S V Subramanian

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114855

Life expectancies across congressional districts in the United States

Soc Sci Med. 2022 Apr:298:114855. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114855. Epub 2022 Feb 24.

Authors

Aya Takai¹, Akhil Kumar², Rockli Kim³, S V Subramanian⁴

Affiliations

¹ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
² Turner Fenton Secondary School, Brampton, ON, Canada; Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³ Division of Health Policy & Management, College of Health Science, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea; Interdisciplinary Program in Precision Public Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: rocklikim@korea.ac.kr.
⁴ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: svsubram@hsph.harvard.edu.

PMID: 35290786
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114855

Abstract

Examining data on the congressional district level may better align with the interests of Members of Congress who have the power to implement federal health policies. Despite this importance, measurement of health indicators at the congressional district level remains widely understudied. In this study, we estimated overall life expectancy and variation within each congressional district by computing standard deviations of census tract-level age-specific life expectancies for 2010-2015. We found smaller standard deviations in congressional districts with higher overall life expectancy at younger ages, but the pattern was reversed at older ages.

Keywords: Census Tracts; Congressional district; Health inequity; Life expectancy; Variation.

MeSH terms

Health Policy*
Humans
Life Expectancy*
United States