When it comes to preventing premature death, most counties in northern Indiana and northwest Ohio are doing relatively better than their states as a whole. But that doesn’t mean the work is finished. Data shows that, despite progress, local health disparities continue to impact communities across the region. There’s no single action that guarantees anyone will make it to their 75th birthday or beyond, but certain choices or behaviors can significantly influence your opportunity to live a long, healthy life. Eating nutritious foods, staying active, keeping up with routine, preventive care, or abstaining from tobacco all play an important role in supporting long-term health outcomes. Accomplishing those goals can be harder for some. Where a person lives, their environment, or household income can make healthy choices difficult, which is why strong community health relies on more than just a visit to the doctor when you’re sick. “You can view health as a spectrum that’s dependent on many different factors,” said Dr. Sarah GiaQuinta, senior vice president for community impact at Parkview Health. “But social drivers of health are critical to consider. About 80% of modifiable factors that contribute to the health of individuals are not directly related to clinical care.” While key factors affecting life expectancy lie outside the traditional healthcare setting, Parkview and community partners use local health data to identify emerging needs and develop programs focused on issues such as chronic disease prevention, maternal health, food access and mental wellbeing. Making it to old age Local counties run the gamut when measuring the metric for “premature death,” according to the long-running national County Health Rankings and Roadmaps database run by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Premature death is defined as “years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population,” so it quantifies how common it is for residents to fall short of their life expectancy. The U.S. average is 8,100 years of potential life lost per 100,000 population, while Indiana’s and Ohio’s statewide averages trail the national figure at 9,500 years and 9,400 years, respectively. Locally, LaGrange County, with its large Amish population, is the healthiest in the region and fifth-best in the state at 6,400 years of life lost. Whitley (7,200), Wells (7,300) and Adams (7,900) counties are the next best three. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Grant County is the lowest ranking in the state at 15,000 years of potential life lost. Wabash (11,000), Fulton (10,900) and Miami (9,800) counties are also slightly behind the Indiana average. In total, 15 of 20 counties in the region are beating their statewide averages, but just seven of those are better than the national average. Risks to longevity change throughout life. Complications during infancy and early childhood can affect life expectancy, while accidents, overdoses, suicide, and homicide are among the leading causes of premature death in younger adults. After age 40, preventive screenings and chronic disease management play a larger role. The health and lifestyle choices individuals make across that journey add up, for better or worse, GiaQuinta said. Those personal decisions are important, and one aspect of wellbeing patients have direct control over. But, GiaQuinta notes, other social and community factors likely play an even greater role in health outcomes that individuals don’t have nearly as much control over. The relationship between health and wealth Decades of public health data continue to bear out one stubborn trend – people with more money tend to have better health outcomes. That’s exemplified by data from areas such as Hamilton County, northeast of Indianapolis, being perennially No. 1 in household income as well as No. 1 in County Health Rankings’ preventable death metric. And it can even show up in a more hyperlocal context, such as in Allen County, GiaQuinta said. For example, the southeast Fort Wayne 46803 ZIP code has one of the state’s highest poverty rates at around 45%, correlating with significantly higher rates of health risks like high blood pressure, diabetes, and lower levels of cancer screenings. But in Fort Wayne’s 46845 ZIP code on the north side, where poverty is under 4%, you’ll see significantly better outcomes. The difference in life expectancy between those two areas? Nearly 17 years. “It is stark,” GiaQuinta said. “That is a story in itself. If we examine income disparity across Fort Wayne and correlate it with life expectancy, that’s telling you something.” The socioeconomic question isn’t just purchasing power in dollars and cents, although having a higher household income enables families to make health-positive choices more easily, like buying and eating healthier foods, enrolling in fitness classes, or having regular access to healthcare. Low-income urban areas or rural areas are more likely to lack local amenities that support better health, whether that’s a grocery store with fresh produce, parks and trails, or nearby access to primary care doctors, dentists, or mental health providers. Additionally, access is often limited by a person’s insurance coverage or their ability to receive Medicaid. Racial disparities continue to persist, too, with minority populations likely to have lower life expectancy compared to white individuals, GiaQuinta said. Stress, whether from the pressure of poverty, from living in areas prone to crime or violence, or from ongoing poor mental health, can be one of those major, lifelong compounding factors that impact longevity. “We know that people who have had really stressful life experiences or trauma as children are at risk of worse health outcomes as adults,” GiaQuinta said. “It may be due to several reasons, but stress puts a significant strain on your body. If a child experiences a lot of stress and their body is always in this fight-or-flight mode, they’re going to be at risk for conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, and even some forms of cancer.” Identifying and addressing root causes Making progress to address underlying social conditions that impact health is long, slow, hard work, but it’s something communities evaluate and attack regularly. Every three years, Parkview conducts new Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) in each county across its service area, providing residents and leaders an opportunity to discuss what they perceive as the issues facing their communities. The assessments combine community surveys, focus groups and health outcome data analyzed by the Parkview Mirro Center’s Health Services and Informatics team, with special efforts to include feedback from vulnerable and traditionally underrepresented populations. Much of that health data is now publicly available through the Parkview Health Community Data Hub, a free online platform that brings together local, state and national health information in a single location. Community members, nonprofits, public health agencies, and local leaders can use the tool to explore trends related to chronic disease, behavioral health, healthcare access, and social drivers of health at the county, ZIP code, and neighborhood levels. Conducting a local examination is important because the needs and issues experienced in a rural area like LaGrange County may be vastly different from the problems faced in downtown Fort Wayne. Parkview completed its most recent set of assessments in 2025. “We examine secondary health outcome data and combine it with feedback we hear directly from the community,” GiaQuinta said, noting that extra efforts are made to reach out to underserved and underrepresented communities for feedback. In 2025, that included local ethnic populations such as Allen County’s Arabic, Burmese, and Spanish populations, as one example. “Our Mirro Center for Innovation and Research health informatics team looked at both primary feedback and local health outcome data to identify the health priorities in the unique communities served by Parkview hospitals.” Community stakeholders then had the opportunity to rank the priorities in their community and formulate a unique action plan to address them. For example, Allen County’s priorities include affordable and healthy food, maternal and child health, and mental health. Across the border in Ohio, mental health and food are priorities there too, but with a third focus on cancer prevention, while Kosciusko County is targeting mental health, cancer, and obesity/diabetes. While some initiatives, like broadened access to cancer screenings, are something a healthcare system can tackle directly, other community needs, like housing or healthy food, fall outside the purview of healthcare. However, Parkview continues to serve its communities in innovative ways, whether it’s providing health education in schools and to the public, collaborating with the City of Fort Wayne (and the Parkview Health Foundation) to establish a healthy grocery store, or supporting local organizations addressing health needs. “As a not-for-profit health system, we have a greater responsibility to reinvest in the community and those social drivers that are impacting their health,” GiaQuinta said. “We understand the social determinants of health now in 2026 so much better than we did in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Once you know the foundation of good health is more than the patient making the right decisions, we can work on addressing those underlying factors to better support them and their families long-term.” ...read more read less