Survey looks at the big picture on health care
— -- A massive, ongoing survey of Americans' daily lives — from how they are treated on the job to whether they had access to fresh fruits and vegetables — is designed to create a sort of Dow Jones Industrial Average for policymakers dealing with health care.
The Gallup-Healthways project includes polling of more than 1,000 people almost every night of the year, building an unprecedented database that scrutinizes physical and emotional health, social interactions, personal behavior and attitudes toward work and life.
A summary of the first year's findings, including a ranking of states and congressional districts, is being released today.
It is called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index AHIP Congressional Report.
"We have to think bigger about health care — that's the message from this data," says Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an alliance of health insurers.
"Does the fact that some people can't purchase affordable fruits and vegetables matter?" If so, she says, that analysis could affect the debate over farm subsidies.
The database is big enough that reliable statistics can be broken out for the nation's 435 congressional districts and 50 largest cities, Gallup CEO Jim Clifton says. That would enable the local government or major employers of, say, Omaha to identify and target the health problems of its residents, and to compare their well-being with people in other places.
The surveys conducted last year — 355,334 interviews over 351 days — tracked the impact day by day of the nation's economic downturn on Americans' daily lives.
"We know unhealthy behaviors increased and healthy behavior decreased over this time," says Healthways CEO Ben Leedle, referring to practices such as smoking and exercise. "The well-being data will give us insights into how to help people cope and move back into healthy behaviors."
Gallup and Healthways, a Tennessee-based health management company, have committed to continuing the index for 25 years.
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