[getsmart-l] Public transportation a determinant of health

[Gloria Boxen]

 http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/index.html

Tuesday, February 26
                        SICK PEOPLE OR SICK SOCIETIES? Part 1 CD
  We are healthier than ever before, and we live longer, but improvements in health are not distributed evenly. The rich outlive the middle classes, who outlive the poor. Swedes and Japanese live longer than Canadians, and Canadians, longer than Americans. Freelance journalist Jill Eisen discovers that the reasons have little to do with our health care systems. Part 2 airs on Tuesday, March 4.  

It will be available on CD and as a podcast.

These are my notes and anything I've added is in brackets.

Gloria Boxen

Health and life expectancy follows the socio-economic gradient of a society.    The steepness of that gradient, or the gap between the rich and poor, determines the gap between the top and bottom of citizens in terms of longevity and health.  

Factors that contribute to the health of a society include
1.  equality- smaller gap between rich and poor
2.  control in one's life, including organization over one's work, i.e. how one  carries out work tasks and responsibilites  (There are people who do need a very  structured workplace and life, GB)
3.  balance between work and personal life
4.  safe, (walkable)  neighbourhoods with many amenities and affordable housing,  (We saw a study that mapped health according to Toronto neighbourhoods, http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_5464.aspx http://www.torontohealthprofiles.ca/dataTablesLevel1.php
http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/neighbourhoods.htm)
5.  good public transportation
6.  early childhood education -  puts people on the path of future success in education and work, and the development of richer, more satisfactory lives.
7.  valuing the elderly and caring for them
8.  universal access to good health care - money is not enough.  

While $5,500 is spent per capita on 55-64 yr. olds in the U.S. and only $2,000 per capita in Great Britain, among white males and females, low status Brits are healthier than high status Americans in certain areas, e.g. diabetes.    Under Thatcher the social gradient got steeper, but the gap between rich and poor flattened under Blair.


What determines the above factors
1. a tendency to use the evidence that shows what works 
(Make use of the findings of studies rather than basing policy and action on political expediency, ideology, or wishful thinking, GB)

2. feelings for common humanity and passion for social justice

3. societal cohesion and cooperation rather than competition - Japanese heart disease rates keep dropping even with increases in serum cholesterol caused by Westernization of diet.

The Japanese feel they are part of the same team and are pulling together.  Even though there is a social hierarchy, they respect each other.  The household income for the top 20% is 3.5x greater than the lowest 20%.  

In Canada it is 6-7x greater, and in the U.S, 8.5- 9x greater.   In the UK it is 7.5x greater, in Norway & Sweden 3.5-4x greater, Chile 20x and Brazil 31x.






 
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