Who knew the most powerful man in New York also has the power to grant longer life!
After a decade in office, Mayor Bloomberg’s many health-care prescriptions, from banning smoking in bars and restaurants or reminding New Yorkers to give up sugary drinks, have paid off, with average life expectancy here reaching a record 80.6 years in 2009.
That compares to 78.2 years for the rest of the nation.
Hizzoner boasted that the city “is now beating the country by a record margin.”
The numbers were better almost across the board, from heart ailments to HIV/AIDS, and even traffic fatalities hitting an all-time low.
Dr. Tom Farley, the city’s health commissioner, credited the administration for bestowing the gift of longer life.
“The fact that New York City’s life expectancy is greater than the US and rising faster than the US means we’re doing something or some things right,” he said.
He pointed to better pediatric care, lower smoking rates, safer streets, less drug trafficking and fewer car accidents.
“Now the Health Department can’t claim credit for all of these, but the city government can claim credit for many of them,” Farley said.
There were significant drops in virtually every major disease, with only hypertension bucking the trend.
And there’s never been a better time to be born in the Big Apple.
The infant-mortality rate fell to a record low of 4.9 per 1,000 live births in 2010.
Since 2000, life expectancy at birth here jumped by nearly three years, compared to a rise of 1.5 years for the nation as a whole.
“Just think about that, three years more for the average person living here than they did before. Could you imagine if it went in the other direction, the devastation it would be causing in our society?” the mayor declared at a press conference in the maternity ward of Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx.
In 2008, newborns could expect to live 80.2 years in the Big Apple, and 78.1 years in the rest of the nation.
But it was in extending life that the force was really with Bloomberg.
Longevity rates both here and nationally have been trending upward for decades.
However, the city is quickly outpacing the rest of the country in life expectancy with the latest difference of 2.4 years being the largest in a decade.
Older New Yorkers had even more to cheer about, since their life expectancies were projected to be even higher than those of newborns.
In what he described as a “selfish” query, the mayor asked for the current expected additional life expectancy of someone 70 years old, which will be Bloomberg’s age in February. Officials reported that it went up slightly, from 16.7 to 16.9 years, meaning the mayor can expect to be around until at least 2028.
While the Bloomberg administration can claim responsibility for much of the good news, the city did begin surpassing the nation in life expectancy in 2000 — two years before he took office.
Also, as the mayor himself explained, the AIDS/HIV epidemic of the 1990s began to be tamed by medical advances around 2000. Deaths from the disease haven fallen by 51.9 percent since 2002.
As usual, the life span for women was significantly longer than for men — 83 years versus 77.8.
Women also outnumbered men in the population by a significant 52.5 to 47.5 percent, or 410,045 more.
Hizzoner giveth…
* Projected life span of infant born in 2009:
NYC—80.6 years
US — 78.2 years
* NYC death rate in 2010
6.4 per 1,000 (record low)
* NYC infant mortality rate in 2010:
4.9 per 1,000 live births (record low)
* NYC death rate from heart disease in 2010:
Down 27.9 percent since 2002
* NYCHIV/AIDS death rate in 2010:
Down 51.9 percent since 2002
…and Hizzoner taketh away
Salt
Sugary drinks
Trans fat
Smoking
Source: NYC Health Department