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New Bedford is the unhealthiest community in Massachusetts in which to grow old, according to the findings of a massive, year-long study of health and aging commissioned by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

Where we rank

While New Bedford doesn’t top the state in percentage of its aging population with any chronic diseases, it ranks near the top on many of the most critical:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 4

Hypertension 5

Congestive heart failure 7

Ischemic heart disease 12

Stroke 15

Diabetes 16

Alzheimer’s 24

Heart attack 24

Source: Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report

New Bedford is the unhealthiest community in Massachusetts in which to grow old, according to the findings of a massive, year-long study of health and aging commissioned by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

“That’s an accurate conclusion,” said Dr. Elizabeth Dugan, associate professor of gerontology at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School and lead researcher on the The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report.

Researchers concluded that the Whaling City ranked below the state average in 31 of nearly 100 indicators of healthy aging. Springfield was next at 25, followed by Fall River at 24.

While the Massachusetts state average for persons age 65 or older having four or more chronic conditions is 59 percent, the four communities with the highest percentage are all located in the Southeast, with Fall River at a high of 70 percent and New Bedford, Somerset and Taunton each at 67 percent.

“Compared to Massachusetts state averages, older residents of New Bedford have lower rates of glaucoma and breast cancer, but they have higher rates of depression, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, stroke, COPD, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis/rheumatoid arthritis, prostate cancer, osteoporosis, and tooth loss,” the report concludes.

“They are more likely than the state average to forgo visits to the doctor due to cost, have greater hospital admissions, emergency department visits, nursing home stays, home health care visits, and take more monthly prescription medications. They are less likely to take health promotion steps such as exercise, colorectal cancer screening, flu, pneumonia, and shingles vaccines, and dental visits. They have a higher rate of obesity and more current smokers than the state average.”

Dugan blamed the city’s standing on its low education levels.

“In New Bedford, more than half of the older residents have less than a high school education,” she said. “As people get more education, … you tend to see improvements in health.”

Income also is a factor.

Ruth Palombo, senior health policy officer of the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, pointed to New Bedford’s high percentage of “dual eligibles,” those residents eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. That number, 33.6 percent in New Bedford compared to 15.9 percent statewide, “is often a proxy for poverty,” she said.

The researchers suggested that New Bedford could improve its situation.

“You can’t make everyone a college graduate, but there are indicators that you could make a dent on, things like fruit and vegetable consumption, smoking, annual check-ups,” Dugan said. “Those are the types of behaviors that respond well to public health campaigns.”

“People aren’t getting flu shots. Only 61 percent of the older adults in New Bedford are getting flu shots. That’s pretty fixable,” Dugan said.

“Clearly, with the multiplicity of problems that have been identified (in New Bedford), there are a lot of things that could be worked on,” Palombo said. “I think it’s important to bring together people from the community to really look at the data and see where some changes might be effected.”

The study presents profiles of each of Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns and 16 neighborhoods of Boston. Each Profile includes nearly 100 indicators describing attributes of population, physical/mental health, chronic disease, nutrition/diet, access to care, service utilization, wellness and prevention, and community variables such as crime rates and walkability.


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