It takes a village to stay healthy. Or at the very least, your “village” may have an impact on your well-being and life expectancy. Several studies in the November 2016 issue of the journal Health Affairs, which had the theme “Culture of Health,” found evidence that the county or even neighborhood you live in is one of the factors that affect your mental and physical health. We’ll look at the results of three of those studies below.
Tight-Knit Health Communities May Reduce Preventable Disease
One of the benefits of a community is that when multiple health organizations work together, the rate of preventable disease within that community drops. That’s what one study in the November Health Affairs issue found.
Researchers looked at 16 years of data from a large sampling of U.S. communities and found that deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and influenza (all preventable diseases) declined over time in communities that had multisector health networks supporting their population. Examples of health organizations that could work together include hospitals, non-profits, public health agencies, and community health organizations. For instance, if a non-profit partnered with a hospital to provide free flu shots to patients in need, that would be a multisector contribution.
The authors of the study noted that less than half the U.S. population lives in a community with strong, interconnected health networks. They suggest that additional incentives and infrastructure changes are needed to ensure that more people are part of a tight-knit health community.
Cohesive Neighborhoods May Improve Teen Mental Health
Your neighborhood could be one of the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of your family. A second study looked at data from more than 2,200 children born in major U.S. cities in 1998-2000. Researchers conducted interviews with parents and children from birth to age 15 and found that children who grew up in neighborhoods with strong social bonds had fewer depression and anxiety symptoms during adolescence. These findings didn’t vary after controlling for family and neighborhood income, which suggests that cohesive communities may have a positive impact on mental health regardless of a neighborhood’s economic status.
Community Well-Being May Impact Life Expectancy
The overall comfort and happiness of a community may affect individuals’ life expectancy. A third study in Health Affairs, researchers took data from a nationally representative telephone survey of U.S. adults in over 3,000 counties to investigate the impact or benefits of community well-being on life expectancy. Measures of well-being included physical health, emotional health, rating of life satisfaction, and security (including access to housing and health care). The researchers scored each county based on these measures of well-being and found that for every one standard deviation increase in a county’s score, life expectancy rose by about two years for women and 2.6 years for men. This positive correlation existed even after controlling for factors such as poverty, education, and race. This means that some of the factors affecting health and well-being may have a lot to do with your community, no matter who you are.
Together, the three studies featured in Health Affairs point to the benefits of community, the importance of encouraging neighborhood cohesiveness, and the importance of investing in resources that help the whole community. An investment in a community is also an investment in improved individual health.
