A Low-Tech Solution to Ending Health Disparities
“One of the great American healthcare tragedies is only peripherally connected to medicine. It’s the fact that one’s zip code can have a greater impact on health than one’s genetic code. Where people live, usually reflecting their socio-economic status, often determines if they will suffer from a serious disease, be admitted to the hospital, be readmitted after release, and if they will fully recover. A population-based analysis of life expectancy found socio-economic, racial and ethnic differences play a significant role in inequalities in health and life expectancy. Now, U.S. News and World Report’s new ranking of the healthiest communities is providing more proof. Those ranked highest, are zip codes for relatively safe areas that have strong economies where residents have easy access to quality education, secure housing, solid infrastructure, and nutritious food. The healthiest communities also tend to have widespread equality of those resources. Non-medical factors like these tend to have the greatest impact on a person’s health.”