D.C. Residents Enjoy Plenty of Parkland. We Eat Our Veggies And Work Out, Too.
By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Washington area is one of the nation's fittest, according to a new study that examined the country's largest metropolitan areas on the basis of factors such as the amount of parkland, the number of smokers and whether people are apt to eat their vegetables.
The District and its surrounding suburbs ranked fourth among the 16 cities studied by the American College of Sports Medicine, clustered near the top with San Francisco, Seattle and Boston.
Using data gathered from such sources as the U.S. Census and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ACSM developed a fitness index that covered 27 aspects of local environment and health, from death rates from diabetes and cardiovascular disease to the number of baseball diamonds and playgrounds.
San Francisco ranked No. 1, with an index score of 403, partly on the basis of lifestyle and health factors such as the relatively high number of people who report exercising at a moderate intensity (55.6 percent, compared with an average of 48.4 percent for all 16 cities) and eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day (31.1 percent vs. 25.4 percent), and the low number of smokers (13.8 percent compared with 17.1 percent).
Washington, with an index score of 369, was above average on almost all of the variables and was rated as the best in the nation on 13 components that looked at recreational facilities and the "built environment."
The study said that nearly 20 percent of the region is considered parkland, compared with 11.6 percent on average for all cities.
There are also comparatively more farmers markets, bike commuters, swimming pools and baseball diamonds in Washington than in the other metropolitan areas; and, at $129 per capita, local governments spend more annually on park programs. (The average is $86.)
About 28 percent of the region eats enough fruits and vegetables each day; more than 80 percent report exercising at least once in the past month; and about half exercise at a moderate intensity or harder.
While the data are diverse -- and include, for example, the number of local primary care providers along with the number of dog parks -- the ACSM said that the panel of experts that developed the index combed through many sets of statistics before winnowing the list to the final 27, which were then weighted based on the group's consensus about their importance.
With obesity felt to be at epidemic levels and the mounting cost of inactivity becoming more apparent, the group said it hopes the index can be used to promote local policies that encourage exercise as a way to combat chronic problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The index "reflects a composite of community indicators for preventive health behaviors, levels of chronic disease conditions, access to health care, and community supports and policies for physical activity," the ACSM said in an executive summary accompanying the study.
The report, released last week, is a pilot project that the ACSM hopes to expand to include the nation's 50 largest metro areas. It was funded by the WellPoint Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the WellPoint health insurance company.
The study largely relied on the same metropolitan-area boundaries used by the census, the CDC and other agencies. In the case of some of the behavioral and health factors drawn from CDC data, Montgomery County was not included as part of the Washington area.
To some extent, the study confirmed a connection between income and health: San Francisco, Seattle and Washington all ranked far above the average in terms of median income and were at the top of the fitness index; Detroit was well below the average for income and was ranked 16th on the fitness scale, with far higher rates of obesity, diabetes and smoking.
But it was not the sole determinant: Philadelphia also ranked low on the income scale, with a median income only slightly better than Detroit's, yet was in the top half of the fitness rankings.
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