Boston announces health initiative, $10M grant to improve life expectancy

Boston will launch a new health equity initiative to address improve and address disparities in life expectancy across the city, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Public Health Commission announced.

“Boston is a city that is rich with high quality health care resources,” said Commissioner of Public Health Bisola Ojikutu. “Yet, we have long-standing gaps in life expectancy and other health outcomes by race, ethnicity and neighborhood. In order to close these gaps, we need to focus on drivers of poor health that exist outside the walls of health care institutions, like poverty and economic inequality.”

City officials announced the start of the Live Long and Well agenda at a press conference at Vine Street Community Center in Roxbury. The agenda, kicking off with $10 million in funding from the Atrius Health Equity Foundation, will facilitate community partnerships and focus on Boston’s three leading causes of premature mortality: cardiometabolic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, cancers of the breast, cervix, colon, prostate, and lung, and drug overdoses.

While overall average life expectancy in Boston rebounded to 82 years since the pandemic and remains high for the country, stark disparities remain, speakers noted.

A BPHC’s Health of Boston 2023 report found that the average life expectancy in the Nubian Square area of Roxbury is 69 years old. Two miles over in Back Bay, the average life expectancy rises to 92 years old, 23 more years.

“The difference between Back Bay and Roxbury isn’t just distance — it’s income, it’s parks and green spaces, it’s access to healthy affordable food, education and opportunity,” Wu said. “And so our health equity agenda is designed to take these gaps on directly and to build on all the work that’s already happening in the community, across every department in the city, every neighborhood across Boston.”

The same 2023 report found that the racial gap in life expectancy in Boston has widened since the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic in 2019 Black residents of Boston lived until 77 on average, four years less than white residents. In 2023, Black residents lived until 76 years on average, six years less than white residents.

In terms of cardiometabolic diseases, Black residents died of diabetes at a 220% higher rate than white residents, the Health of Boston 2023 report found, and of heart disease at a 37% higher rate. Latino residents died of diabetes at an 80% higher rate than white residents.

The $10 million from Atrius Health Equity Foundation will support “community-led coalitions to improve financial wellbeing in communities with poor cardiometabolic health outcomes” as part of a strategy developed by the Boston Community Health Collaborative, the city said.

The city will be seeking proposals to work with organizations on this initiative helping at-risk residents “meet basic needs, have more access to financial supports and wealth-building opportunities, and navigate complex healthcare and social support systems.”

The agenda includes several existing programs and initiatives to prevent cardiometabolic diseases. Further details are listed on the Live Long and Well agenda on boston.gov/live-long.