The Well Being Index

I find this to be an interesting study (the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index). Gallup and Healthways are surveying 1,000 people per day for 350 days per year and has been doing it for several years.

I was reading one of their brochures looking at data from 1/2/10 – 12/30/10. Here’s a few observations:

• The index score across all states varies by a narrow range of 9.3 points.
• The top 5 states (in 2010) were:
  • Hawaii
  • Wyoming
  • North Dakota
  • Alaska
  • Colorado
• The top 5 large cities were:
  • Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
  • Austin-Round Rock, TX
  • San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
  • Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
  • San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont, CA

The overall composite score is based on six sub-indices:

• Life Evaluation
  • Partially based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale
• Emotional Health
  • A composite of how the consumer felt yesterday along nine dimensions
• Physical Health
  • Body Mass Index
  • Disease burden
  • Sick days
  • Physical pain
  • Daily energy
  • History of disease
  • Daily health experiences
• Healthy Behavior
  • Life style habits
• Work Environment
  • Feelings and perceptions about work
• Basic Access
  • 13 items measuring:
    • Access to food
    • Access to shelter
    • Access to healthcare
    • Having a safe and satisfying place to live

This gives an interesting macro view of healthcare at a localized level. The thing I’d like to learn is how this is shaping communities and health care entities to act different. Is this changing engagement strategies? Is this changing regional investments? Can the data be tied back to individuals and used to help improve outcomes?