Summit County Has the Highest Life Expectancy in the Nation, According to New Study

(Reprinted from the Summit Daily News, May 8, 2017)

Summit County's life expectancy is the highest in the nation, according to a study published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2014, the latest year that data is available, Summit's expected longevity was 86.83 years.

That narrowly edged out the neighboring counties of Pitkin and Eagle, which came in at number two and three nationwide with life expectancies of 86.52 and 85.94, respectively.

By comparison, the nation with the highest life expectancy in the world that same year, tiny Andorra in Europe's Pyrenees Mountains, came in at only 84.8 years, followed by Iceland at 83.3.

"Summit County has very high education, high income, high access to medical care, the people are physically active, obesity is lower than anywhere else — so you're doing it right," said Dr. Ali Mokdad, one of the study's co-authors. He is the head of U.S. research for the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which conducted the study and earlier this year concluded that Summit has had the lowest cancer mortality rate in the country for 30 years.

Many of the factors that influence the low cancer death rate affect overall life expectancy as well. Summit, for instance, gets particularly high marks for physical activity levels, access to exercise opportunities and low obesity rates, according to a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation earlier this year.

While Summit's high elevation can put potentially fatal strain on people with heart disease, longtime residents who are acclimated actually enjoy an added hardiness, which Mokdad said could contribute to the impressive lifespan figure.

"There have been studies saying that if you live at higher altitudes you live longer," he said. "If you move there with a heart problem or heart condition it's going to put a strain on you, but if you grew up in that area, your body has adjusted to be more resilient. It's a good environment for your health."