FORNEY, Texas — A study about life expectancy in Texas says Forney residents may live longer than their neighbors in other parts of Kaufman County.
FORNEY, Texas — A study about life expectancy in Texas says Forney residents may live longer than their neighbors in other parts of Kaufman County.
UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists calculated and mapped life expectancy by gender and race/ethnicity down to the ZIP code level across the state and found that overall life expectancy in Texas is 78.5 years.
Overall life average expectancy for women is 81.1 years, compared with 75.9 for men. Life expectancy is 81.2 years for Hispanics, 78.1 years for whites, and 75.3 years for blacks.
The average life expectancy for Kaufman County residents is 76.4 years.
Forney and those in the 75126 ZIP code on average live to be 79.9. Residents in Kemp’s 75143 ZIP code average life expectancy is 75.4, followed by Kaufman’s 75142 ZIP code of 74.7 years.
Terrell residents in the 75160 ZIP code life expectancy were among the lowest in the county with 74.4 years; followed by Mabank’s 75147 ZIP code of 73.2 years. Data was not available for Crandall or Scurry’s ZIP codes.
Data from the study also confirmed that life expectancy was strongly associated with poverty. People living in ZIP codes with less than 5 percent poverty lived an average of 82.4 years. Data shows that those living in ZIP codes with more than 20 percent poverty lived an average of 76.4 years.
"This study sheds important new light on the issue of health disparities," said Dr. David Lakey, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for The University of Texas System. "Overall disparities by gender or racial groups are significant, but to truly impact health we need to understand where the disparities are most severe, and to recognize that there is immense geographic variation even within groups."
The longest life expectancy in Texas, according to the study, is in the 78634 ZIP code of Hutto, Texas near Austin. Data shows a life expectancy there of 97.0 years. The lowest life expectancy in the entire state is in Fort Worth with 66.7 years in the 76104 ZIP code.
The new analysis and interactive mapping tool, where you can input your own ZIP code to see detailed life expectancy results located here, uses data from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Center for Health Statistics 2005-2014 death records.