Beach Cities likely Vitality City pick
The Beach Cities Health District’s bid to enroll the community in the cutting-edge Vitality City public health program has apparently been successful.
A delegation of officials from the Blue Zones Vitality City project paid the Beach Cities a final visit this week prior to a BCHD Board of Directors meeting next Wednesday at which the health district will decide whether to commit $1.8 million over the three year life of the project.
Project co-creator Dan Buettner, the author of Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, upon which the Vitality City program is based, said this week that Beach Cities have met all the main criteria. He cited room for improvement in community health, the ability of local leadership to work together, and a strong desire to participate as among those criteria.
“We have pretty much made our choice this will be the next Vitality City,” Buettner said. “But we are awaiting final community approval next Wednesday.”
Buettner said 55 cities applied, and after intensive visits with the three finalists – which also included Asheville, North Carolina, and a cluster of communities in Central Florida – his team feels they have found the right fit. They have visited leaders throughout the community to determine if enough buy-in exists to successfully implement the program.
“We are comfortable that the mayors, city managers, the schools, the employees, the Beach Cities Health District – the big players are on board,” Buettner said. “There is enough of a critical mass for us to feel comfortable we can be successful here.”
Blue Zones would match BCHD’s $1.8 million financial commitment with $3.5 million. Buettner indicated that a national sponsor would participate – in its previous project, the AARP was a lead sponsor – but said it was premature to identify who that sponsor might be.
BCHD CEO Susan Burden said that the district’s financial contribution would be significant – the money would come from its $39 million reserve funds – but noted that Blue Zone’s $3.5 million match helps make the deal a unique opportunity for the district to leverage its own funds productively.
“It’s kind of like the Olympics – you become an Olympic city, but it’s not like it doesn’t cost you anything,” Burden said.
Among the assets Blue Zones brings to the table is access to the Gallup Healthways Well Being Index, perhaps the best community health measurement tool available and one that Gallup spent $25 million developing. Burden said such data-driven community health assessments have proven elusive in the field of public health because of their expense.
“For us to gain unfettered access to that for three years is huge,” she said.
The Blue Zone Vitality City project achieved startling results in its first and thus far only city, Albert Lea, a community of 18,000 in Minnesota. In just 10 months, the 3,600 residents who participated in the program lost an average of 2.6 pounds and increased their life expectancy by 3.1 years. Absenteeism among city and school employees dropped 20 percent, and health care costs of city employees dropped 49 percent. Blue Zones is seeking to expand and create a template that can be applied to cities throughout the country. Its arrival here is a large step in that direction.
The project grew out of Buettner’s National Geographic study of five areas around the world – Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, the Greek island of Ikaria, Loma Linda, Ca., and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica – where life expectancy is longest, 10 to 12 years longer than the American average of 77.9 years.
Blue Zones uses an environmental approach to lifestyle change – that is, making a community more pedestrian and bike-friendly, encouraging restaurants to incorporate menu changes by offering options such as smaller portions and fresh produce, creating “walking school buses” for school children, and enlisting residents in the creation of community gardens.
“At the end of this, they would like to see us become one of the most bikable, walkable cities in the country,” Burden said.
If the Beach Cities do indeed become the next Vitality City, the project would launch here later this year. Buettner said that contrary to perception, the Beach Cities have much room for improvement. He pointed to a recent Los Angeles County Department of Public Health study that showed the communities here show an unusual disparity insofar as health measurements are not in keeping with its relative affluence.
“It’s got the worst disparity in L.A. County, yet the perception is that people here are so healthy,” he said. “It’s just not as healthy as we think….Usually, the richer you are, the healthier you are, but somehow the correlation isn’t working out here.”
The study showed that Hermosa Beach’s life expectancy was 80.4, only 60th among the 103 L.A. County cities and communities included; Redondo Beach was 50th at 80.8 and Manhattan Beach 20th at 83.2. Torrance was 30th at 82 years life expectancy.
The BCHD board meeting at which the Vitality City project will be discussed is Oct. 6. ER