Research

With the passing of the Health Care Reform bill, hopefully more people are becoming aware of how policies (and laws) have an impact on the current and future health of our country.  It’s important that the right issues are addressed and supported.  One of the organizations in New Orleans that is researching, educating, and serving on Advisory Committees in service to our community is the Prevention Research Center at Tulane.

The Tulane Prevention Research Center (PRC) is one of 37 Prevention Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The Tulane Prevention Research Center studies the impact of physical and social environments on obesity and collaborates with community partners through policy, education and communication strategies to build healthier communities in New Orleans and beyond.

Here is a highlight of how PRC is serving you and the health of our community:

Healthy Eating Projects

Core Research Project on Neighborhood Food Environment

PRC core research project examines the relationship between availability and promotion of healthy and unhealthy foods and consumption.  The project explores whether changing the food environment is predominantly low income, New Orleans neighborhoods will result in improvements to residents’ food purchases, diets and change in weight status.

Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research Network

PRC is working in collaboration with the national Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research Network (NOPRN) to advance research on policy and environmental approaches to obesity prevention.

New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee

PRC serves on the New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee (FPAC), an advisory body to the New Orleans City Council which is made up of diverse members from the public, private, and civic sectors.  PRC directed research and advocacy for an FPAC initiative to improve access to grocery stores, farmers markets, and other fresh food retail outlets in neighborhoods.

Active Living Projects

Physical Activity and Policy Research Network

PRC is a collaborating center on the national Physical Activity and Policy Research Network (PAPRN).  This network works to identify physical activity policies and determinants, describe the process of implanting policies, and determine outcomes of physical activity policies.  The Tulane PRC will develop a community play index for playground and schoolyards.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities

New Orleans is one of 41 sites nationwide selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Program.  The PRC will support the KidsWalk coalition to increase the walkability and bikeability of New Orleans, particularly around schools.

Bike Lane Research

The PRC received a Rapid Response grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the impact of new bike lanes throughout the city on ridership.

Safe Route to School Evaluation

The Safe Route to School Evaluation Study is examining the attitudes and possible barriers to children walking or biking to and from school. In collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the Tulane PRC has collected community and school-level information thoughout planned sites in Louisiana.

The Lafitte Greenway Evaluation

The planned restoration of the Lafitte corridor includes pedestrian and bike path that will link 7 neighborhoods, parks, historic sites, retails areas and community spaces. The PRC received Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research funding to conduct a two-year baseline evaluation of neighborhood residents’ physical activity levels before the renovation of the Greenway is developed.

(Source: Tulane Prevention Research Center handout)

I’m not that old and I didn’t grow up on a farm…yet I remember the saying “If you don’t have your health; you don’t have nothing at all.”  I remember my dad telling me that. He wasn’t or isn’t a sick man but he is a self-employed man; he owns a construction company. His health is very important to him because without his health/ability to put in a hard day’s work – he doesn’t make money.

The saying also definitely applied more in the old days – when most people did some sort of physical labor as the primary way to earn a living. If people were sick or injured, they couldn’t perform their work duties and they didn’t get paid.  The incentives to be healthy were far greater (survival) and by default of performing physical/manual labor people were more active.  Times have changed.  Technology has changed the way we earn a living and most people in developed countries can perform their job while being overweight, out-of-shape, and plagued with chronic diseases, etc. Most people don’t care about their health.  It’s obvious when looking at the results of studies. Louisiana ranked 41 out 50 on the 2009 Well Being State Ranking. #1 being the best – 50 the worst. From Gallup and Healthways Well Being Index (Click on the image for larger image)

Merging decades of social and clinical research, development expertise, health leadership and behavioral economics, Gallup and Healthways collaborated to develop the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI) – the first and largest survey of its kind, aggregating data from 1,000 calls a day, 350 days a year. The Well-Being Index is already the largest behavioral economic database ever created and, over the next quarter century, will generate more than nine million individual responses.

The Well-Being Index and associated City, State and Congressional District Reports provide the only measurement today for total well-being. Beyond medical condition and access to healthcare coverage and services, the Index also questions respondents about economic, professional, emotional and social circumstances. With Well-Being Index data, it’s possible to quantify and establish a correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live and their well-being.

Some more results were released today.

The County Health Rankings—the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states—were released today by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a briefing in Washington, D.C.  The 50 state reports help public health and community leaders, policy-makers, consumers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

Each county is ranked within the state on how healthy people are and how long they live. They also are ranked on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty.

Poorly ranked counties often had multiple challenges to overcome, including:

• Two- and three-fold higher rates of premature death, often from preventable conditions.
• High smoking rates that lead to cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema.
• High rates of obesity which can put people at risk for diabetes, disability and heart disease.
• High unemployment and poverty rates.
• High numbers of liquor stores and fast-food outlets but few places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

Read More from the Press Release

Now, if only Gov. Bobby Jindal would have a look at this study and stop his plans for cuts to health care…

Here’s a look at the results for Health Outcomes.  For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #16 and Orleans and St Bernard 59 and 62 respectively.  Interesting disparity between those…any thoughts of why? (Click on the map for larger image)

And the results for Health Factors: For the Greater New Orleans area St. Tammany Parish was #1, Jefferson #5 and Orleans and St Bernard 47 and 59 respectively. (Click on the map for larger image)

For greater details of the overall rankings and finer details check this out.

I normally don’t write posts this long…but this is serious – we have to start going to back to the mentality: If you don’t have your health; you don’t have anything at all.