Black men in South Florida have made tremendous strides in longevity, according to new estimates released Thursday. Those born in 2009 could expect to live 7 years longer than those born two decades earlier.

But researchers with the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation who calculated lifespans in every U.S. county in 1989, 1999 and 2009 also said there was troubling news. The numbers show women's lifespan gains have slowed to a crawl nationwide. Also, how long one might live varies hugely among counties in the same state, hinting at differences in healthcare access.

Florida, for example, claims the nation's highest life expectancy: the 85.9-year lifespan projected for white females in Collier County, which includes Naples. Then there's rural Baker County, up in the state's upper northeast corner, where black men are estimated to live 62.4 years 23.5 years less than Naples' white women.

In four Florida counties, all in the Panhandle, women's longevity estimates dropped by several months from 1989 to 2009 a trend echoed in hundreds of counties nationwide. Dr. Ali Mokdad, the head of the institute's U.S. County Peformance Research Team, said this means girls born in these places three years ago will live shorter lives than their mothers.

"This should be a wake-up call for all of us, and should rally people in their communities. These are disparities we should not ignore," Mokdad said from Atlanta, where the data were released at a health care journalists' conference.

The biggest culprit? The institute team, based at the University of Washington in Seattle, blamed health risks stemming from poor lifestyle choices: smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

South Florida public health experts agreed. "Unfortunately in our healthcare delivery system today, we focus more on medical intervention than health promotion," said Cecilia Rokusek, executive director of education, planning and research for Nova Southeastern University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. People need to begin working on healthy aging in midlife or younger, not in their 80s and 90s, she said.

Rokusek thinks the increase in healthcare education targeting minorities over the past decade helped boost black male longevity. Those alive in 2009 are now projected to have an average life expectancy of around 73 years in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, above the state average.

Dr. Richard C. Palmer, of the College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University in Miami, said black men also benefitted tremendously from better blood pressure drugs, as they are more likely to be hypertensive. But he noted that many minorities and people living in rural areas continue to have shorter lives than their white or urban counterparts, an observation born out in the new estimates.

In his own research, Palmer found rural doctors were less likely to discuss health prevention with their patients. And life experiences can affect health habits: "One black man, who remembered segregation as a child, told me he wouldn't go to doctors as an adult because he didn't trust them," Palmer said.

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Black men show big gains in longevity | How long will you live?