The Key to Good Health May Be in Your ‘ZNA’

 

Biology isn’t the only thing that makes us different

We know that our genetics can shape our health, but so can three other important factors. These are social determinants of health and community social and physical environments.

Social determinants of health include income, poverty and inequality. The social environment includes things like crime rates and the affluence of your neighborhood. When we talk about physical environment, we’re talking about whether your neighborhood is designed to be walkable, has access to healthy foods or has heavy industry.

These factors can affect your health in direct and indirect ways. For instance, breathing in a poison from a factory can directly cause asthma or cancer. Living in a neighborhood with access to healthy food within walking distance of your house can indirectly benefit your health.

In fact, many studies have documented that these three factors have a more powerful impact on health than do the individual biologic differences between people. For instance, income and educational attainment are at least as strongly associated with hypoglycemia in patients with diabetes as known clinical risk factors. Individuals living in neighborhoods with limited healthy eating and physical activity resources have a higher risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Dr Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has stated that: “We know that a child’s life expectancy is predicted more by his ZIP code than his genetic code.”

That’s not an overstatement. There are dramatic differences in life expectancy across the United States depending on where you are born. The highest-longevity places tend to be in the Northeast and West and the lowest in the South. While genetics and health care are critical, others have argued that “ZIP code, race, and class trump genetics and healthcare as predictors of health.”