Life expectancy in metro Vancouver can vary by a decade depending on neighborhood, says study led by UBC

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The life expectancy of Metro Vancouver residents can vary by nearly a decade depending on the neighborhood they live in, according to surprising new research from the University of BC.

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A UBC-led study published this week in Health and place Although overall life expectancy is high for the region, inequality between neighborhoods has increased since 2001 and life expectancy can vary by up to a decade.

It is the first study to examine life expectancy and causes of death in the Metro Vancouver neighborhood over a 27-year period.

Not surprisingly, researchers found that the life expectancy of Metro Vancouver residents is lower in impoverished areas like Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Haney in Maple Ridge, where there is a life expectancy of less than 75 years for both women. as for men. Research shows that there are also neighborhoods in the boroughs of North Vancouver, New Westminster, and Langley where life expectancy for men is less than 75 years.

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That’s significantly lower than Metro’s overall life expectancy rate, which in the 2016 census was 86.6 years for women and 82.5 years for men.

The researchers used data from Statistics Canada to create an interactive data map which can be manipulated to show the life expectancy and mortality rate from various causes of death at the census tract level for 27 years.

UBC notes that statistically residents of the Downtown Eastside have life expectancies that are comparable to the life expectancy of residents in Indonesia (71.8 years) and Russia (73.2 years).

Life expectancy is highest in Metro’s most exclusive neighborhoods in West Vancouver, West Point Gray, northwest Richmond, and parts of South Surrey and Coquitlam, according to the study.

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Women live longer. Women with an average life expectancy of more than 90 years live in areas of Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, Tsawwassen, Coquitlam and parts of South Surrey. There were no neighborhoods where more men generally lived after the age of 90.

Jessica Yu, a doctoral candidate at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health and the study’s lead author, said the data shows the real inequality that occurs within the city and where it occurs.

“We are seeing huge inequality within a city that has a relatively high overall life expectancy,” he said.

Cancers, HIV / AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases are the main drivers of disparities between neighborhoods, according to the study, which uses data from 1990 to 2016 and does not reflect the massive number of deaths from Metro’s opioid crisis. Vancouver.

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Still, the study shows that substance use is one of the top 10 drivers of neighborhood disparities.

“We see a growing inequality with substance use disorders,” Yu said.

To measure how inequality has changed over time, the researchers compared the gap in life expectancy and found that it narrowed between 1990 and 2001, but then changed direction and grew during the last 16 years of the study period.

“On average, we’ve seen women live longer than men, but this is the first time we’ve quantified it in Metro Vancouver,” Yu said. “What we have found is novel is that the gap in life expectancy between the highest and the lowest life expectancy has increased for both men and women, but especially for men.”

The study does not reveal why these inequalities have increased since 2001, but Yu said that some census tracts, or areas of the city, have more services, more green spaces, and more transit access than others.

He said that more green spaces in a neighborhood, for example, can contribute to better mental health.

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