By Jeff Eason
The Watauga Democrat
Wataugans just want to stay a little longer.
A new report released this week from the health advocacy organization NC Child states that babies born in Watauga County will have, on average, a longer life expectancy than babies born in any other county in the western half of the state.
The report states that babies born in Watauga County will have a life expectancy of 81 years, on par with babies born in Japan, which is the longest rate of any major industrial country in the world.
The report stated that factors that account for the area’s projected longer life spans include education and prenatal care, plus lower poverty and obesity rates than found in many of the other counties in North Carolina.
For comparison, the report noted that babies born in Swain County, 100 miles to the west of Watauga County, have a life expectancy of 73 years, the same as babies born in Cambodia.
For the state as a whole, the report, titled “The 2014 Health Report Card and County Data Report,” found that babies born in Orange County had the longest life expectancy at 81.7 years.
“Watauga County was tied with Chatham County for second highest life expectancy in the state,” Laila Bell, director of research and data with NC Child, said. “Of course, when you are talking about less than one percentage point in this report, that is probably not statistically meaningful. It would probably be more accurate to say that Watauga County is in the cluster at the top of this list.”
According to Bell, Wake County was fourth on the list.
Bell mentioned health, education and economic income as being factors in determining the life expectancy of babies born in each county, as well as prenatal care.
“Watauga County has a 2.4 percentage rate in the category of ‘babies born with no or extremely late prenatal care,’” Bell said. “That is one of the lowest percentages in the state by far. We find that access to prenatal care is critical to the health of babies.”
According to the NC Child report, the life expectancy rate of 81 years for babies born in Watauga County is significantly higher than its neighboring counties.
The report put life expectancy for babies born in Ashe County at 77.7 years, Avery County at 78.7 years and Wilkes County at 77.2 years.
The new report is not all good news for Watauga County, however. It also stated that the child poverty rate in the county has increased 45 percent since 2007.
For more information, visit www.ncchild.org.