A request from above

This week Tom asked me to do some research for Jerome Miller, one of Phoenix's Deputy City Managers. Jerome is busy with overseeing several departments so I worked mainly with Brandi, his assistant, to complete the tasks assigned to me. At first this request did not seem like much fun but as time moved forward it become a project that I've become very proud of. This project and the following one both became resume builders that I can use in future internships or career. The first part of the project was to research the healthiest cities in America and where Phoenix falls into the ranks. Following my research I was asked to write an executive summary of my findings so I could present it to Council Member Valenzuela. This is what I wrote:

Briefing Council Member Valenzuela

Healthy City Rankings Review

The Issue

A literature review of electronic resources shows that Phoenix generally ranks mid-pack in terms of the “healthiest” largest city in the U.S.

AFI / The Measures

The American Fitness Index (AFI) is an initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) that aims to assess the overall health and fitness of U.S. metropolitan cities. Scores are assigned by comparing various indicators to the national average and rewarding or penalizing the cities as appropriate. The scoring falls into two categories: 1) personal health indicators and 2) community and environmental indicators. The AFI report reflects a city’s preventive health behaviors, levels of disease conditions, health care access, and community resources and polices that support physical activity. The indicators that make the difference between a healthy, fitness-friendly city and one that ranks poorly is banning smoking in public places, adding parks, walking trails and bike trails, and prioritizing healthy habits. Many publications use various studies and reports, but the AFI is the most consistent report used. Forbes, NBC, Huffington Post, and other resources cite to the AFI where Phoenix ranks near the middle of all metro cities studied.

Another study is the Centrum Healthiest Cities Study which issued a “health report card” of U.S. cities. The 50 largest metro cities were tested against each other in five categories where Phoenix ranked 21st. Also, the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index is another study to measure a city’s rank of happiness and health. The poll has surveyed more than 300,000 Americans and questions 1,000 people on a daily basis. The survey includes questions about jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind, and communities. Phoenix ranks 69^th out of 190.

Phoenix

The AFI ranks Phoenix 32^nd among the 50 largest metro areas. Phoenix has the highest percentage of residents with asthma at 11.9%. Way below the average of 93.2, Phoenix only provides 71.0 health care providers per 100,000 residents. According to the AFI, 82.6% of Phoenix’s population reported participating in a physical activity in the last 30 days. With a decent amount of parkland, Phoenix fails in the number of recreational facilities provided leading to a 44^th ranking in community/environmental indicators.

Areas where Phoenix excels include: lower death rate for cardiovascular disease, lower death rate for diabetes, higher percentage of city land area as parkland, and more acres of parkland per capita.

Improvement priority areas for Phoenix are: higher percent with asthma, higher percent with angina or coronary heart disease, fewer farmers’ markets per capita, lower percent using public transportation to work, lower percent bicycling or walking to work, fewer ball diamonds per capita, fewer dog parks per capita, fewer playgrounds per capita, fewer golf courses per capita, fewer parks per capita, fewer recreation centers per capita, fewer pools per capita, fewer tennis courts per capita, lower park-related expenditures per capita, lower number of primary health care providers per capita.