Genetic code, zip code: both affect health
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April 6-12 is National Public Health Week, so this column will focus on factors that influence our health. For many of us, if not most, the word “health” brings to mind our family doctor, our local hospital, the neighborhood pharmacy. But health encompasses so much more, and is greatly affected by where we live, learn, work and play.
A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America looked at the factors that affect Americans’ health in our homes, our work environments, and our communities. The experts call these factors “social determinants of health.” Put another way — one that more of us can understand — this bi-partisan Commission’s purpose was to identify what factors, other than actual medical care, affect our health.
And one of the factors they identified was that, as one writer put it, “our zip code can have more of an effect on our health than our genetic code.”
This notion was confirmed recently with statistics provided through an update on March 25 of the following website: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/.
This is an interactive, highly informative website that shows extensive health rankings for where we live. Just click on the map of Montana, and you can compare counties. Lake County’s health rankings are quite interesting. We place 36th overall in Health Outcomes, and 39th in Health Factors, with categories broken down into Physical Environment (which includes “severe housing problems”), where we rank a 43 out of 46 (not all 56 counties reported information), and Clinical Care, where our ranking is 30 – much better. You can find really fascinating information here – for not just Montana but the entire country as well.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided the following facts to help people think about the state of their health:
Evidence now suggests that medical care accounts for only 10 to 15 percent of preventable early deaths.
Some Americans will die 20 years earlier than others who live just a few miles away because of differences in education, income, race, ethnicity and where and how they live.
College graduates can expect to live five years longer than those who do not complete high school.
Middle-income people can expect to live shorter lives than higher income people, even if they are insured.
And people who are poor are three times more like to suffer physical limitations from a chronic illness.
But before we start banging the drum about personal responsibility, we need to look at the obstacles people face when trying to make healthier choices. For example, is there a store with good fresh quality food in a place that a person can get to easily? Is it affordable? Does the person even have reliable transportation to get to the store?
We all know that exercise is good for our health, but can a single mom caring for a special needs disabled child have the time and energy to even walk around the block? The same goes for someone who is working two minimum wage jobs just to keep food on the table.
The take-home message from this information is that we need to think of innovative ways to address the health care needs of our local population, by figuring out what the barriers are to better health and how we can address them, to make our “zip codes” healthier places to live. What better time to think about it, than National Public Health Week.
