Building healthier communities

I work as an editor at one of those "newspapers" you might have read about in history books, and one of my duties is to write editorials from time to time. Thankfully, I have a lot of freedom about what I write, so a lot of times I get to write about things such as fitness and nutrition, as they relate to social policy.

Here's one I wrote back in November. It was a response to a series of unfavorable health statistics regarding my community, but I think many of the ideas can be adapted to just about any community in need to a health makeover.

A healthier community can begin with small steps

As we wrote Wednesday, a report that labeled Eastern Kentucky's fifth congressional district as the nation's "unhappiest" might sound inflammatory on the surface, but it is actually a compelling wake-up call for a region that has fallen behind the rest of the nation in just about every significant health statistic.

When you look at such factors as smoking, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression, Eastern Kentucky ranks at or near the top in all the wrong ways. We have known these facts in isolation for some time, but the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index is unique in lumping them all together to paint a picture that is more concerning than the sum of its parts.

Obviously, something needs to be done, and for the most part, it is up to us as individuals to do the heavy lifting -- by making the choices to quit smoking, get some exercise and eat better.

But local government -- county, city and school district -- can help promote the transition to healthier lifestyles, and there is good reason to do so. According to the World Health Organization, a concerted focus on tackling the three major risk factors -- smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise -- could prevent 80 percent of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and strokes, as well as 40 percent of cancers.

And government can help promote healthy behaviors while neither intruding in personal lives nor breaking the bank. Simple, low-cost, minor improvements can help a community.

To get the ball rolling, here are five suggestions we can offer:

Making public spaces more active. One of the most effective ways to encourage exercise is simply to give people convenient, equipped places to do it. Communities can encourage walking and running by providing trails in parks and other public lands, complete with benches and functioning water fountains. Floyd County, its five cities and local parks boards could also expand upon the idea of Second Sunday, simply by closing off a street once a month to provide residents a safe, convenient location to walk, run and bike.

Creating bicycle-friendly communities. Simply put, there is no healthier, cheaper or more environmentally-sound form of transportation than a bicycle. While Floyd County already has a small but dedicated cycling community, some who might otherwise ride a bike are discouraged by concerns over safety. Local governments could promote cycling and improve safety by painting designated cycling lanes in high-traffic areas, reducing speed bumps on city streets to allow unobstructed bicycle passage, posting "Share the Road" signs throughout their communities and providing convenient racks in which to park and lock bicycles.

Developing year-round adult intramural sports leagues. Mention the word "exercise" to sedentary people, and many will roll their eyes and envision sweating and hard work. Use the word "sports" instead, and they will conjure more positive images of fun, games and competition. But for most people, participation in sports ends in high school, if not sooner. Exercise should be a lifelong activity, not a childhood one. Local parks, churches and schools could organize adult-oriented sports leagues and trick people into exercising by letting them engage in regularly-scheduled, active fun.

Providing consistent and frequent nutritional education to students -- in the classroom and the lunchroom. Schools do educate their students about good nutrition, but a lot of times that education is infrequent, confusing and completely undermined when they reach the cafeteria. When students are taught to choose low-fat, high-fiber, fresh foods, those lessons are lost when they go to lunch to find pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and French fries. It is a classic "do as we say, not as we do" scenario that almost always fails. Schools not only need to provide more frequent information about what to eat, they also need to provide menu options that rely less on highly refined and processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and sodium, and more on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meat choices that aren't deep-fried.

Expanding the smoke bans. Prestonsburg is already a leader in this regard, and it is time for Floyd County's four remaining cities and the fiscal court to follow suit. A report released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that simply enacting smoke bans in public places can reduce the number of heart attacks in a community by up to 47 percent. And to tackle the problem at its source, we would like to see any smoke ban improved by offering first-time violators the option of taking part in a smoking-cessation program in lieu of paying a fine.

-- The Floyd County Times, Nov. 20, 2009