Intermountain Healthcare: Alliance for the Determinants of Health
A collaborative in Weber and Washington counties have been formed... Read more →
February 2016
How Employers Can Support and Promote Healthy Communities
There is an inextricable link between health, income and education.
In general, the more education you have, the more income you’ll earn over your lifetime and higher education can translate into better health. According to the Robert Wood John Foundation’s (RWJF) Commission to Build a Healthier America, “25-year-old college graduates, on average, live eight to nine years longer than people who have not completed high school. And the contrast is not just between the extremes—they can also expect to live two to four years longer than their counterparts who have attended but not completed college.”
What Determines Our Health?
So, where should we direct our focus? It turns out that our health is mostly determined by our behavior and environment. According to the RWJF and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute,
That means that only 20 percent of our health status is determined by our clinical care—in terms of access to care and quality of care. While this statistic may be surprisingly low, it does not trivialize the importance of medical care. Clearly, living in a healthy neighborhood is no consolation if you are sick and your illness could bankrupt your family financially, physically and/or mentally.
Location, Location, Location
What is crucially important to recognize is the extent to which ZIP codes matter. Our ZIP code tends to be a more accurate predictor of how long we live than our genetic code. As shown in the map of New Orleans, babies born in a neighborhood not far from the French Quarter can be expected to live, on average, until the age of 55, while babies born a few miles northwest, in a suburban Lakeview neighborhood, can be expected to live up to a generation longer, until the age of 80.
This pattern is not unique to New Orleans. It is a pattern seen in communities across the country.
ZIP CODE MATTERS
Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America, . These data points are life expectancy at birth. Information prepared by Woolf et al., Center on Human Needs, Virginia Commonwealth University using Evans BF, Zimmerman E, Woolf SH, Haley AD. Social Determinants of Health and Crime in Post-Katrina Orleans Parish: Technical Report. Richmond, VA: Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Human Needs; 2012.
What Works
There are a number of organizations working with communities that are struggling with their health, income and education. Their investments and activities include:
All sectors—nonprofit, for-profit and public—and all disciplines—medical and nonmedical—must work together to build a culture of health. “Healthy” can become the norm when we design our environments—where we live, learn, work and play—to make “healthy” the easy and attractive choice.
Employers have an important role to play in this endeavor, and it extends beyond their four walls.
How Employers Can Support and Promote Healthy Communities
Healthy Communities Components
Elizabeth Sobel Blum is a senior community development advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The views expressed in this blog posting are hers and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System. Data and facts cited in this blog posting are compiled from public and private sources deemed reliable at the time of publication.
If you represent a business, corporation, healthcare system or coalition engaged in community partnerships and well-being initiatives, consider sharing your story!
Comments