Diversity vital to health

Where people lives affects their health. The idea that economic status, education level and access to health care factor into people’s well-being is accepted as fact by most.

But a new study led by researchers from Yale University shows that other aspects of where people live could affect their health — things that might not have been associated with wellness, such as racial diversity.

“It seems that where you live matters,” said Dr. Brita Roy, Yale School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and director of population health. “The goal of this study is determining what matters about where you live.”

Roy is lead author of the study, which analyzed data from the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, a comprehensive, multi-dimesional well-being assessment of more than 350,000 Americans.

After looking at the data, the researchers identified 12 attributes strongly associated with well-being.

Some weren’t surprising. Communities with a lower percentage of residents without a high school diploma and a higher percentage with a bachelor’s degree were associated with a higher well-being.

Areas with better access to preventive health services, such as mammograms, had higher levels of well-being.

But some findings surprised researchers, such as living in a community with a higher percentage of black residents was associated with greater well-being for all residents.

“That was one of those things where, while I didn’t expect to see it, I was happy to see it,” Roy said.

Other factors associated with better health included a higher percentage of residents commuting by bicycle, using public transportation or working from home.

Roy said the report’s findings are “very relatable” to Connecticut, as “you have areas of higher and lower well-being across the state.”

She pointed to the nonprofit organization Data Haven, which collects and publishes vital statistics on health, wellness and demographic information about Connecticut and its communities. The organization also collects information on what percentage of residents consider themselves in “excellent or very good health.”

Fairfield County is the Connecticut county with the highest percentage of residents who considered themselves in excellent or very good health, at 67 percent, and Windham County had the lowest, at 58 percent, according to Data Haven’s web site.

The two communities seem to adhere to at least some of the Yale study’s findings about well-being. Fairfield County has a lower percentage of residents without a high school diploma and higher rate of residents with a bachelor’s degree or more than Windham, and a higher percentage of black residents.

Roy said the study could provide a road map for policymakers and those in public health who wish to improve well-being in certain communities. However, she said, although the new study shows a link between certain factors and well-being, it doesn’t definitively show that things like increased diversity cause increased health.

“We know these things are linked,” Roy said. “But we don’t know which is the chicken and which is the egg.”