Another study is adding to growing evidence that the condition of a neighborhood can have a significant impact on its residents' health. The latest by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Equity Matters Inc. found that people living in Baltimore's lower-income neighborhoods had worse health outcomes than those in its more affluent areas. Life expectancy varied by as much as 30 years between the city's poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods between 2005 and 2009, the study found. People lived longest in the greater Roland Park area in North Baltimore, 86.3 years, and shortest in Upton/Druid Heights, 56.7 years. Because Baltimore has significant patterns of segregation, health disparities often align by race. For instance, in 2007 the premature death rate in Baltimore for blacks was 1.8 times higher than for whites. Many characteristics of a neighborhood play a role in health outcomes, including access to medical care and healthful foods and exposure to violence and environmental hazards, the study found. --- Read more at The Baltimore Sun.
