CBS News: City Counties Ranked Healthier Than Rural
Many people think of the city lifestyle as unhealthy, associating it with noise, pollution, crime, dense populations, a fast pace, and high stress levels. Many aspire to leaving the city for the country and the healthier lifestyle they think more tranquility brings. Fresh air, open spaces and chirping birds should be conducive to a much healthier lifestyle, or so the thinking goes.
But, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano, a new study seems to dispel those notions. Cities once infamous for pollution, crime, crowding and infectious diseases have cleaned up their act.
"They may have a better educational system," says Patrick Remington, project director of County Health Rankings, a report published by the University of Wisconsin that ranks more than 3,000 counties nationwide against others in their states.
"They may have more job opportunities," Remington continued. "All these things come together to make urban areas (and), in particular, suburban communities, healthier than their rural counterparts."
The report found that 48 percent of the healthiest counties were urban or suburban, while 84 percent of the unhealthiest counties were rural.
"New York City," says Remington, "is one of the densest urban areas in the country, but it has a reasonably good health outcome. It has policies that encourage people to get out and walk, and clean indoor air policies, and policies that that help people pick healthy foods."
Photo courtesy of Leo Newball, Jr.'s photostream, Flickr.com Creative Commons