If you’re dealing with the stress of a low-income lifestyle – not able pay all the bills, worried about job security, etc. – having access to green spaces will significantly boost your sense of well being, compared to low-income people without this access, a new study found.

The researchers compared reports of well-being among wealthy people and poorer ones in 34 countries, and found overall wide gaps in the sense of well being between rich and poor – not surprisingly. But among the poor with good access to green or recreational areas, the gap in reported satisfaction between wealthier residents shrank by 40%.

The researchers said that green space could play an important role in reducing socioeconomic health inequalities. Many advocates understand this, and are working to open more parks and recreational options in low-income areas. (One study, several decades back, found even planting more trees improves health and reports of well being.)

An article on the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is found here:

http://optimistworld.com/benefits-green-space-reducing-gap-rich-poor/

I’ve never seen anything like it – a dangerous 1/2-acre park in one of the Bay Area’s most dangerous neighborhoods – the Iron Triangle in Richmond – turned into a thriving, beautiful oasis for the neighborhood’s children and families, who need the respite and the exercise. Here is a write up on it, below, with Toody Maher, the woman behind the transformation, described as well. It’s a truly uplifting project, and as Toody said, parks all over the country in distressed areas could do the same. (With the tenacity of someone like Toody…)

The Mighty Elm Playlot

Carl Vogel
Published: September 16, 2014

Toody Maher knows the impact a local playground or park can have on residents’ health.

She can citestudies that show that children with a playground very near their home are much more likely to be a healthy weight, that kids are more active at a renovated playground, that more kids in low-income neighborhoods use a playground when there is adult supervision.

http://www.instituteccd.org/news/5076

Here are the questions nearly 5,000 African American and Caribbean adults were asked:

“How often do you receive poorer service than others at restaurants or stores?” (disrespectful discrimination);

“How often do people act as if they’re better than you are” (condescending discrimination;

“How often are you viewed as dishonest?” (character-based discrimination) and;

“How often are you threatened or harassed?” (hostile discrimination).

The vast majority (83%) said they’d experienced some type of discrimination in the past year. Half of respondents reported repeated discrimination of all types, and one in 7 reported frequent experiences of discrimination. The latter group had especially high rates of clinical depression and substance abuse.

The research, published in the August 2014 edition of Addictive Behaviors, also discussed life qualities that protect against the stressful. “Factors such as ethnic identity, spirituality and religiosity have been found to help protect against risk factors such as everyday discrimination,” said Trenette Clark, lead author of the study.

To learn more, visit http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/uota-edi091214.php

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just released an excellent report on obesity rates in the United States. While adult obesity rates increased in six states, that’s a slower climb than in the past, when almost all states showed increases. And rates are leveling off for children, thankfully. Surprisingly, at least to me, California has the most very young obese children in the nation.

Yet there’s a continued burden of obesity among black and Latino populations, as the chart on the left shows. Keys reasons, as the report notes: “Disparate access to affordable healthy food and safe places to be physically active contribute to higher rates of obesity and related illnesses in Black communities in America.” It’s not safe to exercise in many communities, and one resident of a poor Oakland neighborhood said she was even afraid to walk to the corner store to get some produce and milk for dinner. So crime reduction plays a role in reducing these rates.

Read the report at: http://stateofobesity.org/disparities

In researching a book on distressed communities, nothing has become clearer than the role of education in lifting the health, and economic prospects, of a community. Yet as this article describes, poor kids face the greatest obstacles in succeeding in school. In one community I’m reporting in, a rural county in Northern California, 1 out of 6 students in the school district are chronically absent. There are many reasons, but among them are transportation challenges, lack of supervision and health issues.

How to Get Kids to Class

To Keep Poor Students in School, Provide Social Services

“According to the education researchers Robert Balfanz and Vaughan Byrnes at Johns Hopkins, children living in poverty are by far the most likely to be chronically absent from school (which is generally defined as missing at least 10 percent of class days each year)….”

www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/to-keep-poor-kids-in-school-provide-social-services.html?emc=edit_th_20140826&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=49581318

This write-up has a clear, narrative summary of what’s doing on with health disparities, especially among blacks. Excellent charts too.

From VOX:

WHITE PRIVILEGE IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Updated by Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman on August 25, 2014, 7:00 a.m. ET

With the eyes of the world on Ferguson, Missouri, our collective attention is focused on the different treatment of black and white people at the hands of America’s criminal justice system. The focus is well deserved. More than 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, it’s still true that half of the black men in the US wind up arrested at least once by the age of 23, and are ten times more likely to be murdered than white men.

But every single day, there are many more race-related deaths that result from a quieter but arguably even more violent act: systemic discrimination in the US health system.

The truth is this: even today, in America, white privilege works better than most medicine when it comes to staying healthy….

To read more: www.vox.com/2014/8/25/6052871/why-white-skin-works-better-than-most-medicine