“When we controlled for historical life expectancy, we found three additional community factors that each exert a significant negative effect — a greater number of fast food restaurants, higher population density, and a greater share of jobs in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction,” Dobis said. “For example, for every one percentage point increase in the number of fast food restaurants in a county, life expectancy declined by .004 years for men and .006 years for women.”

Community factors influence how long you’ll live

Journal Reference:     Elizabeth A. Dobis, Heather M. Stephens, Mark Skidmore, Stephan J. Goetz. Explaining the spatial variation in American life expectancy. Social Science & Medicine, 2020; 246: 112759 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112759