Public health experts often talk about the “"social determinants of health": community traits such as housing quality, access to nutritious and fresh food, water and air quality, education quality and employment opportunities. These factors are thought to be among the most powerful influences on a person’s health.
Local communities in every state across the U.S. face similar poor economic realities: 52.3 million Americanslive in economically distressed ZIP codes. This means that about 17 percent of the U.S. population lives in places with limited opportunities for education, good housing and employment. These factors are essential for good health.
Analysts at the Economic Innovation Group found that people in prosperous counties live, on average, five years longer than those living in distressed counties. In distressed counties, deaths from mental and substance abuse are 64 percent higher compared to prosperous counties.
As public health researcher David Williams and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Vice President James Marks wrote, “reaching America’s full health potential will require that targeted initiatives have a dual focus” on health and community economic development. This means that the health and economic sectors must collaborate, which is often made difficult by separate funding streams and political battles.
Despite challenges, there are successful examples of communities working together to improve health and foster economic opportunity. In Sacramento, California,the Building Healthy Communities program worked with community members to develop bike paths and expand community gardens. This effort was a part of an initiative to transform formerly contaminated land into healthy, livable and usable property.
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