East Texas life expectancy is shorter

TYLER – UT Tyler researchers recently conducted a study to see if health patterns in East Texas aligned with pre-COVID-19 data and they found that East Texans have a shorter expected lifespan than most Texans, according to our news partners at KETK. Research analyst Manuel Reyes and his team at the Hibbs Institute for Business and Economic Research took a look at 23 East Texas counties and found the average life span in this region is 75, which is four years less than the state average.

“The leading causes are heart failure and lung cancer; smoking rates are so high in East Texas compared to other portions in the nation,” Reyes said.

Rural health educator Kim Bush explained that good health or bad health all starts with habits.

“Habits are generational. [Smoking] is what their parents did, or that’s what their big brother did so they follow suit,” Bush said.

Bush leads the UT Health Lifestyle Change program, which hosts workshops on quitting bad habits and starting new ones.

“I suggest let’s see if you can at least get down to one and a half packs. Then next week, let’s see if I can get down to one pack but behavior change is not linear,” Bush said.
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Melissa Ivey with the American Cancer Society focuses on educating the public about appropriate lung screening intervals to detect lung cancer earlier.

“The average age for lung screenings is 50 but then if you’ve ever smoked 20 packs of cigarettes in a year, regardless of when you’ve quit smoking, that increases your risk of developing lung cancer and you should get screened earlier,” Ivey said.

Learn more about UT Tyler’s research on the health status of East Texas.