Resolving to Help Our Community
Loving our neighbor is a community effort. Resolve to focus on others this year.
Last month, the National Center for Health Statistics released a report showing that life expectancy for the U.S. population increased to 78.4 years in 2023, an increase of 0.9 year from 2022. Though we do not yet have 2023 data for Angelina County, we do know that as far as health outcomes are concerned, Angelina County is faring worse than the average county in Texas and worse than the average county in the nation. The most recent average life expectancy data for Angelina County from 2019-2021 was 73.4 years, more than four years below the national average. When broken down by race, the non-Hispanic Black population fared far worse at an average life expectancy of only 68.0 years.
What happened from 2022 to 2023 to cause such a jump in national life expectancy? The CDC reported that the ten leading causes of death remained the same, with heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injuries maintaining the top three spots. The most notable change was for COVID-19, which dropped from the 4th leading cause in 2022 to the 10th leading cause in 2023. Drug overdose deaths also decreased.
This is all great news. But the unanswered question is, why?
Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic, bluntly states, no one knows. Certainly, premature deaths of young and middle-aged Americans drop the average life expectancy. Compared to other countries, Americans are more likely to die at a younger age from a number of events, including gun violence, overdoses, and automobile accidents. And yes, all three have seen declines recently. Likewise, Americans are, frankly, some of the fattest people on earth. But obesity recently decreased (a little) as well. Yet, the reasons for these decreases are obscure.
Thompson notes that, taking drug overdose deaths as an example, the “maybes and perhapses” explanations are far from certain – and, therefore, hardly actionable when it comes to policy recommendations. Same thing with obesity. KFF, a health policy research nonprofit, reports that one in eight adults has taken one of the new injectable GLP-1 agonist weight loss drugs (think Ozempic, et al.), including 4 in 10 of those with diabetes. Are injections alone responsible for declining obesity? Or are obesity rates simply plateauing?
When we don’t have sure answers, it is hard to act decisively. That doesn’t mean we should just throw up our hands and do nothing. Some answers ARE sure. Vaccines against smallpox (now eradicated), polio, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis B have “changed the world” for children. Vaccine denialism is a blind and dangerous cult.
Look at the top two causes of death: heart disease and cancer. Impacting just three factors – increasing coverage of blood pressure medications, reducing sodium intake, and eliminating artificial trans-fat intake – could significantly impact cardiovascular deaths. Yet blood pressure is poorly controlled in the patients I see. And with cancer, prevention and screening were the main contributors to reducing mortality from the top 5 cancers (breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer) over the past 45 years.
Routine screening for breast cancer (mammograms), colorectal cancer (colonoscopy or fecal testing), cervical cancer (Pap smears and vaccines), and prostate cancer (PSA blood tests) saves lives. But participation in cancer screening is not what it should be. And what is the #1 heart disease and cancer prevention intervention? Don’t smoke! And if you do smoke, quit.
Don’t smoke! And if you do, quit.
Having worked in emergency rooms, I can attest that if you ride a motorcycle, you are stupid not to wear a helmet. Likewise, when riding in a car, wear your seatbelt. Our bodies – especially our brains – do not handle going through the windshield or hitting the pavement well.
Back to Angelina County, there are many factors that influence health outcomes, including health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol use, diet and exercise, sexual activity), physical environment (air and water quality, housing and transit), and social and environmental factors (education, employment, income, family and social support, and community safety). Of course, access to care and quality care are important, but these clinical care issues only account for 20% of health outcomes. If we are going to impact our county’s overall health (and how long we live on average), each of these areas needs to be addressed.
In Angelina County, we still have a significantly higher rate of smoking than the state and the nation. We are more obese and more inactive. We have a higher rate of uninsured and a higher rate of preventable hospital stays. We have more children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and a lower median household income. Though we match the state’s high school graduation rates on average, we lag in the number who attend college. Impacting health and life expectancy means impacting the educational and financial security realm as well as what we traditionally think of as health issues. Economic development and job creation impact health, for example. Access to parks and trails impacts obesity and overall quality of life.
We can’t impact our county’s overall health (and how long we live on average) without the commitment OF the community FOR the community. We are all in this together.
None of this can be accomplished without the commitment OF the community FOR the community. We are all in this together. Resources and efforts must be shared and directed for the good of all, understanding that some are worse off than others.
What better way to start the new year than to resolve to love your neighbor as yourself on a community level?
What better way to start the new year than to resolve to love your neighbor as yourself on a community level? That is the vision of Angelina Thrive, a young nonprofit collective impact organization working to highlight the efforts of our wonderful Angelina County nonprofits and to be a trusted broker to improve the health, education, and financial security of Angelina County citizens. Angelina Thrive is searching for an Executive Director, so expect to hear more from them in coming months. In the meantime, think about how you can love your neighbor, individually and as a community, and resolve to focus on others this year. By doing so, you will be blessed as well.
Another excellent article!…would that people would read, understand the impact, and take to heart.
Thank you, Sid!
This is the kind of framing we need more of — grounded, data-informed, and unapologetically human.
The sentence that stayed with me: “We can’t impact our county’s overall health… without the commitment OF the community FOR the community.” That’s exactly it. Health isn’t something we patch together at the clinic — it’s what grows (or erodes) in our housing, our wages, our daily stress levels, and how much dignity people are afforded in their lives.
The hardest part isn’t knowing what to do — it’s doing it together, long enough to change outcomes. That takes vision, coordination, and the courage to name when we’re busy but not moving toward a shared standard. I’m trying to stir that conversation in my own county right now — and your writing is a push in the right direction. Grateful for the work and the challenge.