With its most recent report card, the nonprofit group Community Choices is taking a new tack in promoting a healthier Clark County.
Previous report cards, issued every three years, have tallied up scores on health indicators such as obesity tables, smoking rates and air-quality statistics.
Now the 2009 report card has stepped back a bit to examine community factors that eventually influence our individual health.
Most of us know how our health is affected by bad food choices, smoking and lack of exercise, John Wiesman, director of Clark County Public Health, said as he led off Wednesday’s forum at Hudson’s Bay High School.
To learn more, click here
“We all know these things. We’ve been educated, but we still have issues,” said Wiesman, past chairman of the Community Choices board. “While education is essential, it is not sufficient.
“We have to talk about conditions that make people healthy,” Wiesman said.
It’s also a good time to expand the definition of health beyond the scope of medical care, said Sheela Choppala-Nestor of Community Choices.
The author of the 2009 report card offered this definition from the World Health Organization: Health is a complete social, physical and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Choppala-Nestor’s report card examined six community-related factors that can determine health: economics, education, transportation, environment, food and social connections.
Those factors are not represented equally among members of our community, Choppala-Nestor said, so the issue of health inequities also was part of her report card.
Some of the factors’ links to health:
o Economy — Poor children are 15 percent less likely to be in good health than their wealthier counterparts; the difference grows to 19 percent among teens.
o Education — Low education levels correlate with higher rates of risky health behaviors like smoking, being overweight and having low levels of physical activity.
o Environment — Low-income neighborhoods are often near highways, transit centers and high-traffic areas, as well as industrial areas; they are higher in pollutants and also discourage outdoor physical activity.
o Food — Obesity and poor eating habits are linked to low-income neighborhoods, where there is little access to supermarkets and high access to convenience stores.
o Social connections — Women in low-income neighborhoods can reduce health risks by maintaining strong social networks.
o Transportation — International research has found links between obesity and the time spent in cars.
Guest speaker Greg Vigdor, director and founder of the Washington Health Foundation, acknowledged that, “It’s a difficult time to talk to people about how they should take better care of themselves.”
Still, Vigdor cited some recent progress in his group’s effort to make Washington the nation’s healthiest state.
His board of directors thought he was nuts, Vigdor said; experts figured Washington would slip in the rankings.
“We were No. 15,” Vigdor said, “and now we’re No. 10.”
