The city says New Yorkers are getting healthier, but a Community Health Profile report says there are disparities in some neighborhoods. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

Some say life is a beach, but the life expectancy in Rockaway is the lowest in Queens: 76 years old.

"They do fairly well, for example, in air quality," said Oxiris Barbot, the first deputy commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "But when we look at premature mortality, when we look at infant mortality, those are areas where there is work still to be done."

A Health Department study says most Queens residents are expected to live into their 80s. While Rockaway scored low on that front, most residents said they are in good to excellent health. That's not the case for people living in Corona, a finding that's surprises 69-year-old Ralph Lelia.

"I walk every day about two to four miles, and my health is good," he said.

The city says only 69 percent of Corona residents rate themselves as having good or excellent health. People in the Forest Hills and Rego Park neighborhoods rank themselves highest, at 87 percent.

Some Corona residents blame limited green space for their neighborhood's low ranking, but the Health Department said there's a lot more at play.

As part of the study, the Health Department looked at measures such as air and housing quality, hospitalization and incarceration rates, school absenteeism, and accessibility to smoke shops and supermarkets. The study confirmed that wealthier neighborhoods tend to have better health indicators.

"We've seen some surprises, and some of them have been really pleasant surprises, and then others have really confirmed what we have known all along, and have given us an opportunity to really call attention to the ongoing disparities that we see in communities," Barbot said.  

In the future, the city hopes to use the information to encourage the development of facilities and programs to meet each community's specific health needs.

To find out how your community ranks, log on to nyc.gov/health.