Location key in life expectancy in Clark County

Camas’ Prune Hill area has large houses on sidewalk-lined streets. It’s home to trails, parks and Lacamas Athletic Club, and its inhabitants are generally wealthy, educated homeowners.

So, this may be no surprise: Prune Hill has the highest life expectancy of anywhere in Clark County. On average a person residing there can expect to live 85.3 years, according to recently released estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Aside from her student days at the University of Washington in Seattle, Nan Henriksen, who’s 77, has lived in Camas her entire life. She said Camas’ green spaces, trails and proximity to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area encourage people to be active outside. When she was mayor in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Camas City Council focused on ways to preserve and improve quality of life while also trying to attract businesses to its industrial park.

“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a community that has more convenient trails,” Henriksen said, adding that green space is important for psychological and physical health.

Of course, residents’ socioeconomic status is a major advantage. The median household income in Prune Hill is $132,910.

“We’re blessed to have so many inhabitants who can afford good health care and are aware of healthy living,” Henriksen said.

Nathan Murphy is the manager of Lacamas Athletic Club, which has 3,500 members. The club just celebrated a 78-year-old man who took his 100th high-intensity interval training class. The club offers swimming pools, water aerobics classes and partnerships with SilverSneakers and Silver&Fit, health and fitness programs providing no-cost gym memberships for older adults through certain insurance carriers.

Murphy works and lives in Prune Hill, which is — as the name would suggest — hilly. Anyone just walking around the neighborhood is going to get a workout.

“Everybody’s very active in this area,” he said.

Lacamas Lake and the Camas Farmers Market are nearby. On his drive home, Murphy doesn’t pass any fast-food restaurants.

The other side

It’s a different story on the other side of the county.

The National Center for Health Statistics broke down its life expectancy estimates by census tract; there are 98 tracts in Clark County that reported data. A tract that is split between Vancouver’s Fourth Plain Village and Rose Village neighborhoods has the lowest life expectancy, 72.5 years. That means 12.8 years of life separate its residents from those living in the census tract encompassing Prune Hill. By comparison, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is about 79 years, according to the estimates, which reflect deaths that occurred between 2010 and 2015.

The central Vancouver area is much poorer than Prune Hill. Median household income is $40,912 and residents are more likely to live in poverty. If people don’t have living-wage jobs, their energy is focused on staying afloat and maintaining their housing rather than healthy living, said David Hudson, Healthy Communities programs manager at Clark County Public Health.

Access to health care, healthy food, preventive services and the ability to be physically active all play into life expectancy.

“It’s easy to point the finger. ‘Well, they just need to walk more and they need to eat healthier,’ ” Hudson said. “Let’s think about this. How easy it is for them to do that in the neighborhood they live in?”

Do they have reliable transportation? Is there a full-service grocery store and farmers market close by? What is the crime level?

While healthy food is in short supply, there are multiple fast-food restaurants within the boundaries of the census tract, which covers 0.4 square mile. The residential areas are older and missing sidewalks. Its outdoor space, Evergreen Park, has historically been considered unsafe. It’s a matter of environment rather than personal responsibility, Hudson said.

“If you’re a parent you’re not going to have your child go to a park and play and be active if there’s drug dealing and violence,” he said. “Not everybody has the same opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle based on where they live.”

That opportunity often diverges by income.

There is, however, work being done to address the health disparities in the Fourth Plain area. Hudson pointed to several initiatives, including the Healthy Neighborhood Restaurant program that offers people healthier options when visiting certain restaurants, and Safe Routes to School, which encourages children to bike and walk to school.

“There’s a perception that it’s more unsafe today than years past, but the data doesn’t show that,” he said.

When he previously worked in Portland, funding was initially allocated to schools based on interest in the national program, but this highlighted the inequity. Low-income parents are more likely to be working multiple jobs and their main focus is on surviving.

“They don’t have time and they don’t have sometimes the skills to advocate,” Hudson said.

Focusing on solutions

A policy change led to distributing Safe Routes to School funds based on schools’ percentage of free and reduced-price lunches, which, Hudson said, “is much more equitable.” Still, he said, the percentage of children who bike or walk to school has steadily declined.

The Complete Streets program adopted by the city of Vancouver in 2016 narrows streets to vehicular traffic to widen the area for bicyclists, pedestrians and people with disabilities.

“Having complete streets available for people increases their physical activity,” said Jennifer Campos, principal planner with the city of Vancouver.

It boosts business, too, she said. If a corridor is designed for automobile traffic, people are less likely to stop and spend time there. Bicyclists, on the other hand, spend more time and money, Campos said.

Complete Streets improved the sidewalk along Neals and Rossiter lanes to help people better access The Vine, C-Tran’s bus rapid transit route. There have been other sidewalk and crosswalk improvements, and there are plans to add bike lanes on Fourth Plain from Fort Vancouver to Interstate 5, Campos said.

“We still have a ways to go but it’s much improved compared to what it was,” Hudson said.

The area has a lot of disconnected streets, so it’s challenging for people in the residential area to get to Fourth Plain and its transit stops. A lot of people who live in the area also work in the area.

“It’s the most transit-dependent population in the city,” said Andrea Pastor, economic development planner.

She’s involved in Fourth Plain Forward, the city’s initiative to improve a portion of Fourth Plain. One of the reasons the city chose to focus on developing Fourth Plain is the connection between poverty and health.

“How do we encourage people to get out there and walk and access our parks?” Pastor said. “It’s difficult when they have poor infrastructure in their neighborhood.”

Evergreen Park is an example of a place that’s changing. The city made a concerted effort to hold events and movies in the park, and it’s host to the Summer Playgrounds Program where neighborhood children participate in organized activities.

Evergreen Habitat for Humanity recently began focusing on building and home repair in the Fourth Plain area. Heather Cochrun, community outreach manager, said the nonprofit is figuring out how best to lend its expertise by getting to know residents’ hopes and fears; some are concerned about displacement.

“We’re hoping to do some anti-displacement work in that community,” she said.

It’s slow going getting grant money for improvements and doing development work. It’s going to take a while to improve accessibility and the overall health of Fourth Plain, and thereby increase residents’ life expectancy.