The life expectancy in Montgomery County was 73.9 between 2019 and 2020, the latest preliminary data by Public-Health Dayton and Montgomery County says. The same data says that in 2012-2013, life expectancy here was 76.1.
And while COVID is a major factor impacting health in the community, there are other factors bringing down life expectancy, said Dr. Mamle Anim, the chief medical officer at Five Rivers Health Center in Dayton.
“Everyone focused on COVID but everything else didn’t stop,” she said. “A lot of the resources went to the crisis in front of us and a lot of people were afraid of seeking healthcare because they didn’t want to get COVID.”
She said smoking and obesity are problems in Montgomery County, resulting in many people dying earlier. She also said infant mortality is too high in Ohio. The Ohio Department of Health said that in 2019, more than 900 infants died before their first birthday.
Anim said it’s important that Ohioans get a good education and are taught what they need to do when pregnant to protect their child long-term.
“Knowing the factors that impact your child when you are pregnant and then having access to good prenatal care is important,” Anim said.
Dr. Mamle Anim, chief medical officer at Five Rivers Health Center.
Dr. Mamle Anim, chief medical officer at Five Rivers Health Center.
She also said mental health issues and drug abuse are factors negatively impacting life expectancy here. She said living a healthy lifestyle starts in childhood.
“It’s good for us to talk about diabetes and hypertension and COVID and all of that, but we also need to talk about a lot of social-economic things that if we ignore, we cannot get better,” she said. “We want to just talk about medicine but we can’t. We have to talk about everything.”
