Age-specific life expectancies across school districts in the United States: Applying a population weighted geographic crosswalk to aggregate census tract indicators

As standardized geospatial units with social meaning and direct political governance, school districts may be an optimal functional definition of residential neighborhoods. However, few measures of population health are available at the school district level. In this descriptive study, we implemented a novel application of an established geographic crosswalk framework to estimate population-weighted age-specific life expectancies for all 13,592 school districts in the United States for the years 2010-2015. Our results revealed significant variation in life expectancies across school districts and across the life span - including a gap in life expectancy at birth of almost thirty years. We further identified meaningful differences in the extent of inequalities in life expectancy within states, as measured by standard deviation in school district age-specific life expectancies. These findings highlight the utility of using a crosswalk approach to estimate population health and health disparities at the school district level.