Reports on health paint grim picture

4/2/07

A pair of recent surveys paint a troubling picture of health among Bridgeport residents. In addition to high rates of disease and widespread bad health habits, the lack of insurance among broad swaths of the public leaves people vulnerable. People go without basic check-ups, teeth cleanings and exams. It adds up to a dire picture.
One survey, the Community Health Assessment, showed nearly half of city residents have not had a dental exam in the past year, and about one in five lacks basic health coverage. Like urban areas around the country, asthma is an ongoing problem, and the region’s proclivity for putting unwanted polluters in the poor cities rather than the rich suburbs is a major contributor.
Even more alarming was the report of the nonprofit Connecticut Health Foundation, which showed city residents are more than twice as likely as their suburban counterparts to be obese. In Bridgeport, two-thirds of adults are considered overweight, and a quarter of that group are obese.
The study proves, again, that lower income is a contributor to higher weight, and not the other way around. It’s counterintuitive in a way, but the fact that lower quality food is cheaper than healthy brands goes a long way toward explaining the discrepancy. Obesity is a public health crisis, and the poor are disproportionately affected.
With obesity comes higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, and these ailments are more likely to hurt minority populations in Connecticut’s cities. The state report showed blacks die prematurely from diabetes at three times the rate of whites.
Mayor John M. Fabrizi rightly sounded the alarm about the findings, saying that now that the city knows where the problems are, public health programs can more effectively target populations in need. This is a good first step, and education must play a key role. The city survey showed fewer than one in six people could correctly identify the symptoms of a heart attack, and 50 percent of people of people over 50 have not been screened for colon cancer, which is treatable if detected early. Just getting people to understand what the risks are and how to protect themselves would go a long way.
There is, of course, only so much the city can do, but the state must continue its push to insure as many people as possible — preventive care, too expensive to pay out of pocket but affordable with insurance, saves lives and millions of dollars. Accessible, lifelong, universal health coverage must be our government’s top goal. People’s lives depend on it.