Wellbeing Report Examines Health In Somerville

SOMERVILLE, MA – The city of Somerville and Cambridge Health Alliance on Tuesday released the 2017 Wellbeing of Somerville Report. The study examines the health of city residents across six life stages: prenatal and early childhood, school age and adolescent, early adult, young adult, middle adult, and older adult. It also factors in demographic data, including population figures and information on diversity in schools, poverty, housing access and more.

"Using the social determinants of health in this report emphasizes the connections among health education, economy, housing, food security, safety, and health care and the impact they have on the general wellbeing of a community" co-author Doug Kress, Somerville’s Health and Human Services Director, said in a statement.

The report's findings include:

• Somerville has one of the largest populations of young adults in the country with a median age of 31.3 years, and more than 32 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 34 years.
• In 2016, 80 percent of Somerville High School students reported that they had an adult outside of school they could talk to and 64.4 percent had a similar relationship with an adult in school.
• In 2015, residents ages 35-64 were least likely to have health insurance and 6.1 percent of residents had no health insurance.
• Alcohol and substance-related emergency department visits for adults aged 65+ were higher than the state average.
• Lung cancer was the leading cause of death for those aged 65+; Somerville’s rate of lung cancer deaths is significantly higher than the state average.

"Data-driven decision making is at the core of who we are, and the data recorded in the Wellbeing Report gives us an opportunity to begin a community wide dialogue about the health of our city and the steps we want to take to improve it," Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in a release. "Taking cues from our SomerVision process, we're excited to embark on a collaborative planning process alongside fellow government agencies, health care and community partners, and our residents to identify community health priorities and develop a comprehensive Community Health Improvement Plan."

Somerville will now seek community input on health and wellbeing priorities to develop a Community Health Improvement Plan. Information about how to get involved will be released in the near future.

The 2017 report represents a continuation of more than 25 years of periodic review and analysis of Somerville public and community health data. The previous community-wide health data report was published in 2011. The new report can be accessed online by visiting www.somervillema.gov/wellbeing.

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