Life expectancy in Polk County is more than two years shorter than the statewide average — 76.2 years, compared with 78.6 for Florida as a whole.
That gap is one of the key things the Florida Department of Health in Polk County hopes to address in an upcoming Community Health Improvement Plan.
“We have increasing rates of death from heart failure, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. And in all four of these causes of death, Polk County is currently higher than the state,” community health project coordinator Taylor Freeman said at a State of the County forum Thursday.
“We also are in the worst-performing 25% of counties for deaths from stroke and cervical cancer; hospitalizations for hypertension, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease and asthma; emergency department visits for diabetes and asthma; and new cases of prostate cancer.”…