First, it’s important to acknowledge when you (or people you love) are experiencing extra stress, whether financial, health, relationship or job-related stress, or uncertainty about the future. We need to become more aware of how stress is affecting attitudes, communications, health and quality of life. Then we have to take personal responsibility, realizing that our moment-to-moment choices do count. They create a map of which emotional roads we will travel on each day and what their destination is.

The process of managing stress isn’t the same for everyone, because of different situations and differences in individual makeup. Yet, there are simple, effective steps any of us can take.

Thank you so much to all of our participants in the Healthy Horizons AHA Step Challenge.  As of 2:30pm today, we’ve reached 2,228,918 steps, converted, that equates to 1,117.04 miles!  We currently have 52 participants enrolled in the program.  If you haven’t logged your activity from the weekend or last week, you still can!  We have 17 days to reach our goal of 5 million, so keep on moving!

Let’s celebrate our accomplishments and talk about what it will take to become the Healthiest Nation in One Generation!

2015 marks the 20th anniversary of APHA coordinating National Public Health Week! The accomplishments of the public health community over the last two decades are significant. To become the Healthiest Nation in One Generation: experts need to support the integration of public health and primary care; policy decision makers need to understand and support funding for both a strong public health workforce and prevention programs proven to advance health; both national and local policy decision makers need to expand the consideration of health implications in all the policies they create; and the general public needs to make healthy choices for themselves and demand that everyone has an equal opportunity to make those same choices.

Facts & Stats:

Some of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th Century – according to the CDC (and we agree!) include:

• Healthier Mothers & Babies – Infant and maternal mortality rates have decreased in the U.S. Environmental interventions, improvements in nutrition, advances in clinical medicine, improvements in access to health care, improvements in surveillance and monitoring of disease, increases in education levels, and improvements in standards of living contributed to this remarkable decline.
• Immunizations – Today, U.S. vaccination coverage is at record high levels! National efforts to promote vaccine use among all children has helped eradicate Smallpox and dramatically decrease the number of cases of Polio, Measles, Hib and other diseases in the U.S.
• Motor Vehicle Safety – We’ve seen a huge reduction in the rate of death attributable to motor vehicle crashes in the United States, which represents the successful public health response to a great technologic advancement (the motorization of America). The response has spanned government, public health and driver and passenger behavior.
• Family Planning – Increased contraception use, public health education and other factors mean that, today, Americans face fewer unintended pregnancies and are far more likely to achieve desired birth spacing and family size.
• Tobacco as a Health Hazard – During 1964-1992, approximately 1.6 million deaths caused by smoking were prevented thanks to substantial public health efforts.
• Decline in Deaths from Heart Attack & Stroke – Still the country’s top killers, the public health community has helped achieve remarkable declines in deaths from both diseases: since 1950, deaths from cardiovascular disease have declined 60 percent, and stroke rates have declined 70 percent.

(For more visit http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/tengpha.htm)

What’s next? Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:

Sign the pledge to show your commitment.  Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.

Sign the petition to ask our leaders to do their part.  It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.

Let’s map the network of partners and connections needed in our communities to make the U.S. the healthiest nation in one generation.

In the work to become the Healthiest Nation in One Generation, we can’t do it all on our own. As public health professionals, we know it’s not enough to ask people to make healthy choices when intractable challenges such as poverty, poor education, housing and environmental factors have such a profound impact on health. The public health community must expand its partnerships to collaborate with city planners, education officials, public, private and for-profit organizations – everyone who impacts our health.

Facts & Stats:

• Individual workers, unions, employers, government agencies, scientists, state labor and health authorities, and others have worked together to make a significant difference in workplace conditions and safety, vastly reducing workplace injuries and death.
• Fighting Big Tobacco to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use in the U.S. would not have been possible without the combined efforts of a broad coalition of government officials, public health groups, scientists, economists, and educators. Scientific evidence proved the relationship between disease and tobacco use / environmental exposure to tobacco. Funders and advocates spread this information to the public, and fought for nonsmokers’ rights. Government officials and agencies (together with advocates and voters!) passed tobacco taxes, restricted smoking in public spaces, and limited how tobacco companies could advertise.
• Public health action, together with scientific and technologic advances, have played a major role in reducing and in some cases eliminating the spread of infectious disease, and in establishing today’s disease surveillance and control systems.
• Reducing death and injury attributable to motor vehicles has required an all-hands-on-deck approach. In 1966, passage of the Highway Safety Act and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act authorized the federal government to set and regulate standards for motor vehicles and highways, and many changes in both vehicle and highway design followed that mandate. Drivers and passengers also changed their behaviors, in part thanks to significant public health and safety campaigns. Governments and communities recognized the need for motor-vehicle safety, which prompted programs by federal and state governments, academic institutions, community-based organizations, and industry.

(For more visit http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/tengpha.htm)

What’s next? Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:

Sign the pledge to show your commitment.  Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.

Sign the petition to ask our leaders to do their part.  It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.

Let’s highlight the significant shifts that demonstrate momentum is building around a higher commitment to our nation’s public health.

Debates around the Affordable Care Act have brought added attention to prevention and public health. As a result, we’re beginning to see a broad range of influential organizations taking important steps in line with creating the Healthiest Nation. Yet, as we celebrate the gains we’ve made, a key challenge will be to expand and build upon this momentum.

Facts & Stats:

• At APHA, we’ve developed a strategic plan for the public health community to help America become the Healthiest Nation in One Generation!
• Robert Wood Johnson is re-positioning the foundation’s work behind the goal of “creating a culture of health.”
• In 2014, the American Planning Association – the organization of professionals who help communities plan for growth and change – for the first time dedicated a full day of their annual meeting to health.
• The First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative is gaining traction in addressing childhood obesity & raising a healthier generation of kids.
• Even in the for-profit sector we see companies seeking a better balance between their profits and the health of their customers:
  • CVS Health has stopped selling tobacco products and has expanded their programs to help people quit.
  • Sixteen major food and beverage companies reduced the calories in the products they sold by 6.4 trillion calories.

What’s next? Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:

Sign the pledge to show your commitment.  Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.

Sign the petition to ask our leaders to do their part.  It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.

Today, your ZIP code says far too much about your health. Within the United States, there are unacceptable disparities in health, state-by-state and even county-by-county. The effort to make the U.S. the Healthiest Nation in One Generation starts with ensuring equity across our communities.

Facts & Stats:

• In the area served by the Washington, D.C. metro system, communities only 12 miles from each other can have a nine year difference in life expectancy! (Source: RWJ Commission to Build a Healthier America graphic via APHA website)
• In the U.S. there is a 13% difference (9 years) in life expectancy between states.
• Use these great resources to find specific data for how your county and state rank!
  • Find your state in the America’s Health Rankings report.
  • Find your county in the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps report.

What’s next? Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:

Sign the pledge to show your commitment.  Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.

Sign the petition to ask our leaders to do their part.  It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.

What does the data reveal about America’s health?

The U.S. doesn’t have the top health care system – we have a great “sick care” system. We have great doctors, state-of-the-art hospitals and we’re leaders in advanced procedures and pharmaceuticals. But studies consistently show that despite spending twice as much, we trail other countries in life expectancy and almost all other measures of good health. This holds true across all ages and income levels. So what is missing?  We need a stronger public health system that supports healthy communities and moves us toward preventing illness, disease and injury.

Facts & Stats:

We’ve seen some improvements!

In 2013:

• Smoking continued its decline from 19.6% to 19.0% of the adult population.
• Immunization coverage increased from 64% to 67.1% of adolescents aged 13 to 17 years.
• We have many successes like increasing life expectancy, reducing infant mortality and declining cardiovascular deaths – but other countries are succeeding faster than we are.

And yet, compared to peers in other countries, people in the U. S. have…

• Shorter lives – Over the past 25 years U.S. life expectancy has grown, but at a slower rate than in other countries. Studies consistently show we have a lower life expectancy than comparable countries.
• Adverse birth outcomes – we have the highest infant mortality rate, low birth weights, the highest rate of women dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth and children are less likely to live to age 5.
• Highest rates of injury and homicides – deaths from motor vehicle crashes, non-transportation injuries and violence occur at much higher rates than in other countries.
• Heart disease – the U.S. death rate from ischemic heart disease is the second highest; at age 50 Americans have a less favorable cardiovascular risk profile and adults over age 50 are more likely to develop and die from cardiovascular disease
• Obesity and diabetes – For decades the U.S. has had the highest obesity rates across all age groups and adults are among the highest prevalence of diabetes.
• Chronic lung disease – Lung disease is more prevalent and associated with higher mortality.
• Disability – Older U.S. adults report a higher prevalence of arthritis and activity limitations.
• Adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease – our adolescents had the highest rate of pregnancies and are more likely to acquire sexually transmitted diseases.
• HIV and AIDS – we have the second highest prevalence of HIV infection among 17 peer countries and the highest incidence of AIDS.
• Drug related mortality – we lose more years of life to alcohol and other drugs than people in peer countries even when deaths from drunk driving are excluded. In fact the President’s 2014 National Drug Control Strategy noted that drug induced overdose deaths now surpass homicides and car crash deaths.

What’s next? Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.

We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:

Sign the pledge to show your commitment.  Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.

Sign the petition to ask our leaders to do their part.  It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone logging their activity in Healthy Horizons step challenge!  Through 11:00am this morning, our registered participants have logged 724,502 steps for a total converted distance of 365.76 miles in 54 hours and 1 minute of logged activity.  That equates to 14,785 steps per registered rock star!

**Don’t forget to log your weekend activity. Be sure you link to the “Butler University Team” in order for your steps to count.  In order to be eligible for the Healthy Horizons prizes, you must select the option to share your info which will allow us to see to see your name, email address, dept./team name, activities and progress. However, no one will see your health information (weight, height).  If you have already registered and not chosen this option, you can edit your profile to include this.

Encourage your friends and coworkers to join in, it’s not too late to participate! Follow the link, http://www.startwalkingnow.org/registration.jsp to create your free anonymous account to log steps for Butler.