Cardiovascular disease at play in growing rural-urban divide in life expectancy among U.S. counties

Rural town

While life expectancy (LE) in the U.S was was on the rise in the first decade of the 2000s (more so in urban counties than in rural), the last decade showed a drop in LE in rural counties and only modest gains in urban areas. Our Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Leah Abrams, PhD, is the lead author on a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology that takes a deeper look at the factors influencing this gap in life expectancy. Her co-authors include Mikko Myrskylä and Neil K Mehta.

Photo: Gerry Dincher on Flickr