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Health inequities series: Exploring life expectancy by ZIP code

Health inequities series: Exploring life expectancy by ZIP code

Picture of Sandy Kleffman

Bay Area News Group will begin a four part series on health inequities Sunday that will feature ZIP code maps revealing wide disparities in life expectancy, asthma hospitalizations, heart diease and cancer rates.

The project, by reporters Sandy Kleffman and Suzanne Bohan, found striking health differences among ZIP codes just a few miles apart.

Even middle-class neighborhoods are affected, the analysis reveals. Middle-class areas have longer life expectancies than the poorest neighborhoods, but fall years short of life expectancies in the wealthiest areas.

The series will examine the reasons for such stunning health inequities and the movements underway to close the gaps.

An epidemiologist for the Alameda County Public Health Department computed and mapped the data for the newspaper group.

The series will run this Sunday and Monday, and Dec. 13 and 14. It can be viewed at ContraCostaTimes.com and InsideBayArea.com.

We will also have a live chat at noon on Monday, Dec. 7, with Dr. Anthony Iton, the former Alameda County public health director who is now senior vice president of healthy communities for the California Endowment, and Larry Adelman, creator and executive producer of Unnatural Causes, a documentary series about health inequities broadcast by PBS.

Announcements

The Center for Health Journalism’s 2023 National Fellowship will provide $2,000 to $10,000 reporting grants, five months of mentoring from a veteran journalist, and a week of intensive training at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles from July 16-20. Click here for more information and the application form, due May 5.

The Center for Health Journalism’s 2023 Symposium on Domestic Violence provides reporters with a roadmap for covering this public health epidemic with nuance and sensitivity. The next session will be offered virtually on Friday, March 31. Journalists attending the symposium will be eligible to apply for a reporting grant of $2,000 to $10,000 from our Domestic Violence Impact Reporting Fund. Find more info here!

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