CT Has 10th Lowest Obesity Rate in the Nation, Research Finds

Connecticut has a lower adult obesity rate than most other states, according to new national data, which found that 26.9 percent of adults living in Connecticut have obesity, ranking the state 42nd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The state has slipped slightly from four years ago - the obesity rate was 25 percent and ranking was 9th lowest in the nation in the 2014 edition of the annual survey. The state's top 10 least obsese status was in the new report came in the 15th annual State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America report  by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).  Findings include:

• Adult obesity rates vary considerably from state to state, with a high of 38.1 percent in West Virginia and a low of 22.6 percent in Colorado. No state had a statistically significant improvement in its obesity rate over the past year.
• Adult obesity rates are at or above 35 percent in seven states; for the first time in Iowa and Oklahoma, and at least the second time in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
• Six states — Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and South Carolina — saw their adult obesity rates increase significantly between 2016 and 2017.
• Adult obesity rates are between 30 and 35 percent in 22 states and 19 states have adult obesity rates between 25 and 30 percent.
• Over the past five years (2012 – 2017), 31 states had statistically significant increases in their obesity rate and no state had a statistically significant decrease in its obesity rate.
• There continue to be striking racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. In 31 states, the adult obesity rate among Blacks is at or above 35 percent.  Latino adults have obesity at a rate at or above 35 percent in eight states.  White adults have obesity rates at or above 35 percent in one state. Nationally, the adult obesity rates for Latinos, Blacks and Whites are 47.0 percent, 46.8 percent and 37.9 percent respectively.

The least obese states are Colorado (22.6 %),District of Columbia (23.0%),  Hawaii (23.8 %), California (25.1%), Tie Montana and Utah (25.3%), New York (25.7%), Massachusetts (25.9%), Nevada (26.7%) and Connecticut (26.9%).

“Obesity is a complex and often intractable problem and America’s obesity epidemic continues to have serious health and cost consequences for individuals, their families and our nation,” said John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health. “The good news is that there is growing evidence that certain prevention programs can reverse these trends.  But we won’t see meaningful declines in state and national obesity rates until they are implemented throughout the nation and receive sustained support.”

Obesity is a problem in virtually every city and town, and every income and social sector.  But its impact is most serious in communities where conditions make access to healthy foods and regular physical activity more difficult, such as lower income and rural areas, including many communities of color.  The national costs of obesity are enormous, officials point out.  Obesity drives an estimated $149 billion annually in directly related healthcare spending, and an additional $66 billion annually in lowered economic productivity. Also, one in three young adults is ineligible for military service, due to being overweight, officials noted.

The report offers 40 recommendations for federal, state and local policymakers; the restaurant and food industries; and the healthcare system.  Among them:

• Medicare should encourage eligible beneficiaries to enroll in obesity counseling as a covered benefit, and, evaluate its use and effectiveness. Health plans, medical schools, continuing medical education, and public health departments should raise awareness about the need and availability of these services.
• Food and beverage companies should eliminate children’s exposure to advertising and marketing of unhealthy products.
• Hospitals should no longer sell or serve sugary drinks on their campuses; they should also improve the nutritional quality of meals and promote breastfeeding.

Report: Medicaid's Impact Goes Beyond Health Care to Economy

Medicaid is, at its core, a health insurance program that provides coverage to low-income Connecticut residents.  A new report in Connecticut finds that the program also plays a key role in the state’s economy, budget, and ability to weather economic challenges. The report was developed for, and released by, the Connecticut Health Foundation. In Connecticut, Medicaid is known as HUSKY and covers approximately one in five state residents – close to 800,000 people. HUSKY covers more than one third of Connecticut children, nearly 47 percent of non-elderly adults with disabilities, 15 percent of seniors, and 70 percent of nursing home residents.

The report, developed by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, finds that the program is deeply woven into Connecticut’s health care system and plays a major role in a sector of the economy that has been central to job growth in the state. Health care makes up nearly 15 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. Medicaid finances about 20 percent of health care expenditures in Connecticut.

“It is important for policymakers to understand the full impact of Medicaid in the state, particularly as they face difficult budget decisions,” said the report’s author, Edwin Park, research professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “Medicaid plays a key role in the state’s economy and is linked to long-term positive outcomes for children like better health, obtaining a college degree, and higher earnings.”

Among the report’s other key findings:

• Research has linked Medicaid coverage of children and pregnant women to long-term health and economic benefits when children reach adulthood: better health outcomes, greater educational attainment such as completing high school and obtaining a college degree, and higher employment and earnings.
• Medicaid can help states cope with recessions and economic downturns because it automatically increases federal funding in response to higher state costs, such as those resulting from enrollment increases as people lose their jobs and health insurance.
• Medicaid contributes the majority of the federal funding spent through Connecticut’s state budget – 58 percent in the 2016 fiscal year. The federal government pays more than half of the state’s Medicaid costs. For every $10 spent on Medicaid in Connecticut, approximately $5.92 comes from the federal government.

“Connecticut invests significant resources in HUSKY and the findings of this report underscore the impact of this investment,” said Patricia Baker, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation.

The report also indicted that “research has found that Medicaid eligibility during childhood is tied to higher wages and cumulative higher tax payments made as young adults. It also increases employment and reduces the need for public assistance, especially assistance needed due to disability. According to the report, in 2016 Medicaid covered:

• 4 percent of the nearly 400,000 hospital discharges and 12.9 percent of hospital payments.
• 63 percent of the 373,200 patients who received care at community health centers.

The Connecticut Health Foundation is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving health outcomes for people of color. Since its creation in 1999, the foundation has awarded more than $62 million to nonprofit organizations and public entities to expand health equity, reduce health disparities, expand health coverage, and improve the health of all Connecticut residents.

Occupational Illnesses Remain High in Connecticut, Report Finds

Occupational illnesses remain a serious and under-reported issue in Connecticut, with a rate 6 percent higher than the national average, according to a new report issued by UConn Health.  The latest data shows a reporting of over 7,500 occupational illnesses, with up to an estimated 25,000 cases going unreported. The highest number of cases reported were in Farmington, Hartford and Cromwell. The newly published Occupational Disease in Connecticut, 2018 report examined the latest 1997-2016 data, based on reports of individuals filing for workers’ compensation, physician reports to the Occupational Injury and Illness Surveillance System, and the ConnOSHA/BLS survey of employers.

Connecticut’s illness rate ranked 15th highest out of 41 states with publishable data (fourteen states had higher rates and 26 had lower rates). Maine had the highest rate of 38.8 and Texas had the lowest at 9.8. Private sector rates for occupational illness were 15.0 in Connecticut and 14.1 nationally. Connecticut’s public sector rate was 35.7; the U.S. public sector rate was 31.6, according to the report.

The Connecticut data revealed reports of 7,675 unique occupational illnesses.  Most frequent were 3,430 musculoskeletal cases (such as sprains, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and tendonitis), and 2,408 infectious diseases (such as bloodborne diseases and exposures, meningitis, and Lyme Disease).  In addition, the data indicated there were 431 respiratory illnesses (such as chemical exposures, asthma, and poisonings), 313 skin disorders (such as poison ivy and chemical dermatitis), 115 cases of hearing loss, and 978 “other illnesses” (such as heart conditions, stress, and dizziness).

The OSHA/BLS survey shows a rate of 17.4 cases per 10,000 workers in Connecticut, 6 percent higher than the national rate of 16.4. The report focuses on chronic job-related illnesses, and does not include acute traumatic injuries. Overall, approximately 49% were for women, but this varied by type of case, with women accounting for 66% of infectious cases. Based on workers’ compensation reports of occupational illnesses, there were similar proportions (between 20%-25%) for workers in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.

Rates of occupational illnesses varied widely across Connecticut towns and cities. Based on workers’ compensation reports from towns with at least 25 cases, the 10 highest rates were found in Farmington (126 cases per 10,000 workers - almost 4 times the rate as the state average), Hartford (89), Cromwell (89), Groton (85), Westbrook (84), Windsor Locks (73), East Windsor (63), Cheshire (61), Stratford (60), and Middletown (58). The town average across the state was 33 cases per 10,000 workers.

These higher town rates often reflect the locations of large employers in higher hazard industries, and may also reflect better reporting of cases, since cases of occupational illness are often not reported, the study points out.

Based on workers’ compensation reports, the highest rates of occupational illnesses were found in the industries of beverage and tobacco product manufacturing (170 cases per 10,000 workers), computer and electronic product manufacturing (131), primary metal manufacturing (112), state government (103), local government (81), transportation equipment manufacturing (59), electrical equipment manufacturing (57), miscellaneous retail stores (51), fabricated metal product manufacturing (49), and hospitals (46).

The highest specific sector rate, according to the report, was State Government with 41.8, with the highest rates for skin conditions (17.7) and lung conditions (7.9).  Local Government was second with 32.1, and Utilities third highest rate with 31.8.

Each year the report is prepared for the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Commission by occupational and environmental health expert Tim Morse, professor emeritus at UConn Health. The 53-page report is part of the Occupational Injury and Illness Surveillance System, a cooperative effort of the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Commission, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and the Connecticut Labor Department.

The system is designed to track occurrences of work-related disease, with an eye to understanding patterns and developing approaches to prevent occupational illness.

“We must take stronger actions to improve the employee work safety experience and environment, with improvements in ergonomics, safe needle devices in health care, reducing mold and increasing fresh air flow in indoor environments, providing education on toxic chemicals, and increasing the recognition of such hazards as poison ivy,” Morse told UConn Today.

Morse and UConn Health researchers analyze survey responses and occupational illness reports from the State Labor Department/Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey; the first reports of injury to the Connecticut Workers Compensation Commission; and health provider reports to the Connecticut Departments of Labor and Public Health under the Occupational Illnesses and Injury Surveillance System.

Tanning Beds in Gyms Is Concerning Trend, UConn Study Finds

"By pairing exercise with tanning beds, gyms send the message that tanning is part of a healthy lifestyle. It is not," according to University of Connecticut researcher Sherry Pagoto in a study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology. Pagoto is a professor of allied health sciences and president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.  “The presence of tanning beds in gyms is a concerning trend.” Pagoto and her colleagues surveyed more than 600 people who had used a tanning bed at least once in their life. Nearly one-quarter (24%) had tanned in a gym at least once, the findings showed.  Those who had tanned at a gym tended to be heavier tanners overall, and were more likely to be what the researchers called "addictive" tanners.

Nearly half the gyms in the U.S. contain tanning beds.  Two of the largest American gym chains (Planet Fitness and Anytime Fitness) with total combined membership of more than 13 million people offer indoor tanning, the study pointed out.  Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness each have 26 Connecticut locations.

Exercise and tanning are both activities people use to improve their appearance; and people who tan in gyms tan more often – and more addictively – than other people who use tanning beds, according to the study. Exercise reduces the risk of every cancer except one – melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. People who exercise heavily are at greater risk of skin cancer, and yet many gyms in the U.S. have tanning beds. In other words, tanning beds in gyms are targeting people who are already at higher risk of skin cancer, UConn Today explained recently in highlighting the study.

“Exercise and tanning are both things people use to look better, which may be why we see a connection between these two behaviors, and why gyms are providing tanning beds to patrons,” Pagoto said.

The study also found that greater tanning was associated with more frequent exercise, which is especially concerning, because of the connection between heavy exercise and skin cancer risk. Researchers don’t know why exercise is associated with an increased risk of skin cancer. But they do know that the majority of skin cancers are caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, which is what tanning beds produce.

Ongoing, occasional use of tanning beds triples a person’s lifelong risk of melanoma, according to the Melanoma Research Foundation, and the incidence of skin cancer has been rising for 30 years in the U.S. About 91,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma in 2018, and about 9,000 will die from it, according to the American Cancer Society.

“Indoor tanning is the same class of carcinogen as tobacco, radon, and arsenic,” says Pagoto. “Those are not things you’d want around you while you’re working out.”

Pagoto is also Director of the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist her research focuses on leveraging technology in the development and delivery of behavioral interventions targeting diet, physical activity, and cancer prevention behaviors. She has had federal funding for her program of research for 14 consecutive years, totaling over $11 million, and has published over 170 papers in peer-reviewed journals, according to the UConn website.

Among the statements from survey respondents: “My urges to indoor tan keep getting stronger if I don’t indoor tan,” and “at times, I have used money intended for bills to pay for my tanning sessions.”

Pagoto was joined in the study by researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Lincoln memorial University in Tennessee, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Pennsylvania State University and East Tennessee State university.  The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

Connecticut Children's, Yale New Haven Ranked Among Best in Neonatology

Two of the nation’s top 50 hospitals for neonatology are in Connecticut.  Connecticut Children’s Medical Center ranked #25 and Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital ranked #36 in the latest analysis by US News & World Report, which publishes hospital rankings in various medical specialties. Atop the rankings in the pediatric specialty were Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, DC), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital (Cleveland), UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital of San Francisco and Oakland, New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley-Komansky Children’s Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital-Washington University, and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital – Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor).

Fifty pediatric centers were ranked for care of fragile newborns. Breast milk at discharge, patient volume, infection rates in the NICU and other data collected from a detailed U.S. News clinical survey of children's hospitals, produced 85 percent of each hospital's score. The other 15 percent reflects nominations from pediatric specialists and subspecialists who responded to surveys in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and recommended the hospital for serious cases in their specialty.

Yale’s highest ranking among nearly a dozen pediatric specialties was in Pediatric Diabetes & Endocrinology, where it ranked eighth.  Connecticut Children’s is ranked in four specialties, including Pediatric Urology (#30), Pediatric diabetes & Endocrinology (#37), and Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery (#49).  Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital is nationally ranked in nine specialties. (U.S. News includes Yale New Haven Hospital and Connecticut Children's Medical Center in evaluating the performance of Yale New Haven Children's Hospital in Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery and Pediatric Urology.)

Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital admits approximately 125 patients a day. With 208 licensed beds, the hospital has neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, a 24-hour pediatric emergency room and a children's surgery center, according to US News.

Connecticut Children’s reports it has established the largest newborn delivery services network in the state of Connecticut based on the number of hospitals for whom it provides neonatology care.  In addition to Connecticut Children’s two NICUs located in Hartford and Farmington, Connecticut, the Medical Center also provides newborn delivery services at nine hospitals, including five additional NICUs. Hospital partners include Hartford HealthCare (4 hospitals), Western Connecticut Health Network (2 hospitals, as of this month), Ascension (St. Vincent’s Medical Center), Eastern Connecticut Health Network (Manchester Hospital), and Day Kimball Healthcare.

“We’re excited to bring our expertise to more babies in Connecticut,” said Jim Moore, MD, Division Chief for Neonatology at Connecticut Children’s. “My goal is for Connecticut Children’s to develop a truly comprehensive, regionalized, clinically integrated network for newborn care across the state.”

Connecticut Children’s drives innovation across its newborn delivery service locations by sharing best practices and protocols across the network, and ensuring that family centered rounding is done for every patient, according to hospital officials. It also practices “family centered care” - moving patients to the right location for the care they need, but then returning them to their home hospital when they no longer need that higher level of care, officials point out.

“The recognition from U.S. News & World Report is a testament to our dedicated physicians, nurses and staff who care for the sickest children while working tirelessly on advancing research and clinical outcomes at the Medical Center,” said Jim Shmerling, President & CEO at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. “We continue to expand our care network, making it easier than ever for our patient families to access the care they need, when they need it and most importantly where they need it; close to home.”

Bridgeport, New Haven Among Nation's 50 Most Stressful Cities, Analysis Says

Stress?  Look no further than Bridgeport and New Haven.  Both cities were ranked in the top 50 Most Stressed Cities in America, a new ranking produced by the financial website WalletHub. Bridgeport ranked 33^rd and New Haven 41^st, based on analysis that considered stress in four areas:  the workplace, finances, family, and health and safety as contributing factors.

The most stressed cities in America, according to the analysis, were Detroit, Newark, Cleveland, Birmingham, Toledo, Baltimore, Wilmington, Milwaukee Gulfport and St. Louis.  Among New England cities, Bridgeport led the list, followed by Worcester (37), New Haven, Boston (52), and Providence (57). 

Bridgeport ranked 17^th in the workplace stress category and 23^rd in financial stress; 103^rd in family-related stress. Bridgeport also had among the lowest average weekly work hours, tied for 176^th among the 182 cities included in the rankings.  New Haven ranked 168th in that category.

New Haven was 37^th in health and safety related stress; in the mid-50’s in the other categories.

WalletHub evaluated the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state, using the four dimensions including 37 relevant metrics.  Those metrics included job security, traffic congestion, unemployment rate, average commute time and income growth in the work stress category.  Financial stress included evaluation of annual household income, foreclosure rate, food insecurity, housing affordability and debt per median earnings.

The family stress category included the separation and divorce rate, number of single parent households, child care costs and other factors.  The ten factors considered as part of the Health & Safety stress category included mental health, smoking, obesity, inadequate sleep, crime rate and hate-crime incidents.

Greensboro, North Carolina, residents spend the fewest annual hours in traffic congestion per auto commuter, 4, which is 25.5 times fewer than in Los Angeles, the city where residents spend the most at 102, according to the data.  Bridgeport and New Haven tied for 36th in the traffic congestion rankings.

Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, INRIX, Chmura Economics & Analytics, Indeed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Renwood RealtyTrac, County Health Ranking, Zillow, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, TransUnion, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Council for Community and Economic Research, Gallup-Healthways, Numbeo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Sharecare.

Nuclear Attack on NYC Could Impact CT, Report Suggests

The illustration in a recent edition of New York magazine has drawn some attention in Connecticut.  Accompanying an article describing the anticipated aftermath in the tri-state region of a nuclear attack on New York City, the potential path of nuclear fall-out was shown to extend through Connecticut towns including Greenwich, Stamford, Wilton and others, reaching as far north as the town of Monroe. Within two hours of an attack on Times Square, the article described, a plume of radioactive fallout would “unfurl 60 miles beyond the city, lingering for weeks, contaminating food and water supplies.”

The article explains that “In the hours and days after a nuclear blast, a massive plume of fallout would unfurl past the city’s borders and up the Eastern Seaboard, scattering radioactive dust on everything in its path: people, homes, farms, animals, forests, rivers. The most radioactive region of the plume would reach its full length of 20 miles an hour after the explosion, exposing every unsheltered person in the area to toxic levels of radiation; if it were to spread north from Times Square, it would reach as far as New Rochelle. Within a day, this danger zone would shrink to about a mile in length. Within a week, it would have dissipated completely.

A much bigger but less radioactive region of the plume, called the hot zone, would reach its maximum length of 60 miles — extending, say, as far north as Monroe, Connecticut — two hours after the explosion. A week later, the hot zone would still extend 20 miles from the city, and it would take many more weeks for it to disappear altogether. Although radioactivity in the hot zone would likely be too weak to cause any acute symptoms of radiation sickness, it could still subtly damage the human body and increase the chance of cancer.

How far and in what direction a plume of fallout travels depends on the altitude of the mushroom cloud, as well as temperature, wind, and other meteorological variables. Within an hour of an explosion, FEMA’s Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center would begin to track the plume’s movement, providing updates and projections to federal, state, and local authorities. They would use the information to evacuate people in the opposite direction of the plume and warn people in the plume’s path to seek shelter and avoid consuming any exposed water or food.”

Nearly a decade ago, a New York Times story on the subject included this:  Suppose the unthinkable happened…Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.”  That advice, the Times indicated, was “based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.”

“We have to get past the mental block that says it’s too terrible to think about,” W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the time, told the Times. “We have to be ready to deal with it” and help people learn how to “best protect themselves.”

Connecticut's state website focuses on nuclear preparedness related to an emergency at a nuclear power plant in the state.  The Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security site indicates "While the Dominion Energy- Millstone Station in Waterford is the main focus of emergency planning in Connecticut, the fuel storage site at the former Connecticut Yankee site in Haddam, CT and the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York, are also included in Connecticut's radiological emergency preparedness and response program."

Communities near those sites are linked, and a calendar of upcoming training is provided.  The United Way also provides information related to evacuation and taking shelter on the agency's website. New Haven conducted an exercise of their host community reception center to prepare for the unlikely event of a nuclear release at the Millstone power plant in 2015; video here:  https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/videos/109671

(New York magazine illustration)

Power of Nature to Help Cities and Local Residents Being Revealed in Bridgeport

What would happen if ways to integrate nature into a major urban community were pursued?  In Connecticut, the largest city is Bridgeport, and the Connecticut chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been undertaking an effort to find out. Nature offers a lot of benefits to communities, TNC points out. “Trees provide shade and help clean the air. Gardens absorb and filter water, which reduces flooding and runoff into nearby rivers. Healthy dunes and wetlands protect coastlines from storms.”  In addition, the organization points out, “nature can also transform the way people experience their neighborhood.”

With 70 percent of the world’s population predicted to live in cities by 2050, heat and air pollution constitute a major public health concern, TNC points out, underscoring the importance of the organization’s initiatives to plant trees in urban areas across the country, among a series of related undertakings.

“People are at the core of our efforts to identify how neighborhoods are addressing daunting challenges in this formerly industrialized city,” said Drew Goldsman, Urban Conservation Program Manager. “We want to partner with communities to implement natural solutions in Bridgeport that help both people and nature.”

Their Eco-Urban Assessment looked at areas in Bridgeport that have poor air quality, high risk of flooding, and limited access to nearby green spaces and layered it with data on income level, impervious surfaces and asthma rates. The team was able to pinpoint neighborhoods where trees, green stormwater systems and open spaces will make the biggest difference for people and nature.  Air quality and flood risk topped the list of most acute needs.

In collaboration with local partners, the Conservancy is supporting a neighborhood-led greening effort known as ‘Green Connections’ in Bridgeport’s East Side neighborhood. Creating a plan for ways natural resources can shape the future of the community while making immediate changes to the landscape —through tree plantings and green stormwater infrastructure projects— is one of the initiative’s main goals, along with empowering volunteer stewards living in the community to take ownership of these natural areas. All of this helps create safe spaces for the community to gather, provides cooler and cleaner air, and improves wildlife habitat in the city.

According to the Nature Conservancy, Bridgeport currently has a 19% tree canopy cover, for example.  If all open spaces, vacant lots and parking lots could be planted, the city would have a 62% tree canopy cover.  The ramifications would be substantial, impacting various health and quality of life factors.

“Healthier people, cooler temperatures in the summer, cleaner air, reduced flooding, more urban habitat, parks and forests, less sewage overflow, a clean Pequannock River a more resilient coastline and green jobs” are cited as potential benefits.

The national publication Governing pointed out last year that “Streets cover about a third of the land in cities, and they account for half of the impervious surfaces in cities. Impervious surfaces don’t allow water to soak through them, which means they can alter the natural flow of rainwater. City streets collect, channel, pollute and sometimes even speed along water as it heads to the sewers.”

Goldsman indicates that currently efforts are focusing on the city of Bridgeport, but the Eco-Urban Assessment model is available to urban communities that want a deeper understanding of where nature can bring solutions to some of the most pressing urban issues.

“With the Eco-Urban Assessment model, we’re able to help municipalities identify the places and ways we can work together to use nature to improve residents’ quality of life and build more sustainable communities,” said Dr. Frogard Ryan, Connecticut state director for The Nature Conservancy. “From the beginning, we wanted this to be a community-led and TNC-supported program. Residents help us identify areas of other focus that aren’t highlighted by the model and be sure our study reflects what people experience day-to-day.”

Aetna, CVS Health Earn Place Among 50 Civic-Minded Companies

Hartford-based Aetna and Rhode Island-based CVS Health, with their merger plans currently under review at the state and federal levels, have both been named to The Civic 50 for 2018, reflecting their community-minded programs and policies.  They are among the public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more, selected based on four dimensions of their U.S. community engagement program.  Both companies also reached the list of 50 in 2017. The Civic 50 survey, produced annually since 2011 for Points of Light, has provided “a national standard for superior corporate citizenship and showcased how companies can use their time, skills and other resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business,” according to Points of Light.

The survey analysis is administered for the Points of Light Foundation by True Impact, a company specializing in helping organizations maximize and measure their social and business value, and analyzed by VeraWorks. The survey instrument consists of quantitative and multiple-choice questions that inform the Civic 50 scoring process. It is the only survey and ranking system that exclusively measures corporate involvement in communities.

Among findings highlighted in the latest annual report:

• Civic 50 companies are evolving from being supporters to engaging as stewards of social causes. Instead of confining themselves to writing checks or piggybacking off of nonprofit work, Civic 50 companies are involving themselves in all aspects of social causes which they champion. In 2018, 70 percent of Civic 50 companies took national leadership positions on four or more public education or policy efforts, an increase from 62 percent in 2017.
• Civic 50 honorees continue to exemplify one of the core tenets of corporate citizenship: "doing well by doing good". The 2018 honorees demonstrate that integrating community engagement initiatives into business strategy can support business interests. The 2018 honorees are using community engagement to drive key business functions, including employee engagement (86 percent), marketing/PR (78 percent), diversity and inclusion (74 percent), skill development (74 percent) and stakeholder relations (56 percent)
• Leading innovations for purpose at work, Civic 50 honorees have found community engagement as a meaningful and valuable investment to inspire employee changemakers and create a strong culture of giving back. 68 percent of Civic 50 companies include community engagement as a formal component of employees' performance reviews, an increase from 62 percent in 2017.
• Civic 50 companies understand the importance of impact: to ensure the sustainability and success of their community engagement initiatives, Civic 50 companies are using measurement practices to not only measure quantifiable outputs, but social outcomes. Civic 50 companies are making sure to measure social outcomes as part of regularly implemented data collection. In 2018, 68 percent of Civic 50 companies collected and analyzed data on organizational grants and 42 percent did so for volunteerism.

Among the other companies included in the Civic 50 are KeyBank, Marriott International, Wells Fargo, UPS, Prudential Financial, and Comcast NBC Universal.

In its Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Aetna noted that as the company “pursues its goal of building healthier communities, we view social responsibility as a critical driver of success and an integral part of how we conduct our business.”

The report notes that “three quarters of Aetna employees are women, a third are people of color, 11 percent self-identify as LGBT and nearly 5 percent self-identify as having a disability.  Additionally, millennials comprise 31 percent of Aetna’s employees, which was a key driver of our new program to provide up to $10,000 to qualified recent college graduates to help them repay education loans.”

CVS Health, in the company’s social responsibility report, shares that their work “is rooted in our company’s values:  innovation, collaboration, caring, integrity and accountability.”  Three pillars – Health in Action, Planet in Balance and Leader in Growth – make up the company’s Prescription for a Better World, which provide the framework for the CVS Health strategy in corporate responsibility.

The four-dimension criteria used in assessing companies include:

• Investment: How extensively and strategically does the company apply its resources to community engagement in the United States, including employee time and skills, cash, in-kind giving and leadership?
• Integration: How does the company integrate their U.S. community engagement programs into key business functions, including employee engagement, marketing/PR, diversity and inclusion, recruiting, stakeholder relations and skill-development?
• Institutionalization: How does the company support community engagement in the United States through organizational policies, systems and incentives?
• Impact: How does the company measure the social and business impact of their U.S. community engagement program?

Points of Light is the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service.  It grew from the vision of 1,000 points of light shared by founder President George H. W. Bush in his 1989 inaugural address. The Points of Light Corporate Institute is a leading resource for community-minded companies looking to build and expand effective employee volunteer programs.

Report: Connecticut's Medicaid Expansion Increased Coverage, Access to Preventive Care and Behavioral Health Treatment

A recently issued report found that emergency department visits are down; coverage seen as critical in fight against opioids has expanded, and preventative care and mental health care have become more prevalent – all resulting from a 2010 policy decision made by Connecticut’s elected officials to expand Medicaid coverage. That decision, made collaboratively by a Republican Governor (M. Jodi Rell) and Democratic-controlled legislature – helped to reduce Connecticut’s uninsured rate from 9.1 percent in 2010 to 4.9 percent in 2016 and created a significant source of coverage for preventive health services and behavioral health care, according to the report developed by the Connecticut Health Foundation.

The report examines the impact of HUSKY D, as the Medicaid expansion is known, and highlights a number of key findings:

• Most people covered by HUSKY D are using their insurance to get care. Just over 80 percent of people with HUSKY D used the coverage for preventive or outpatient health services in 2016.
• Emergency department usage among HUSKY D members is down significantly. The rate of emergency department visits fell by 36 percent from 2012 to 2016.
• HUSKY D is a significant source of coverage for behavioral health care. In 2016, more than one in three HUSKY D members – 36 percent – used their coverage to get care for a mental health condition or substance use disorder.
• Outcomes have improved for diabetes patients with HUSKY D. A review of more than 500 HUSKY D members with diabetes found that the percentage whose blood glucose was under control rose from 31 percent to 50 percent from 2012 to 2016.

The report also examines the role HUSKY D plays in other policy work in the state, including addressing the opioid crisis and helping those leaving prison get medical and behavioral health treatment when they return to society. The report notes that before HUSKY D, individuals with substance use disorders were generally not eligible for Medicaid, creating a major barrier to treatment.

“Health insurance coverage is a critical first step to health, but it is also important to ensure that people are able to use that coverage to get care, and for that care to make a difference in people’s health,” said Patricia Baker, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. “This research underscores the importance of HUSKY D in giving low-income state residents the tools to take care of their health.”

HUSKY D covers adults ages 19 to 64 who do not have minor children and whose income falls below 138 percent of the poverty level – the equivalent of $16,643 for an individual. (For comparison purposes, a person working 30 hours per week at Connecticut’s minimum wage – $10.10 per hour – would earn $15,756 in a year, the report indicates.)

The report concluded that “nearly eight years after Connecticut expanded HUSKY to cover more low-income adults, HUSKY D has made a significant impact on the state’s uninsured rate and the lives of thousands of people. The majority of those covered are using this insurance to get preventive care, and the rate of emergency department usage has declined, a promising trend.”

The report also notes that the federal government has “financed more than 90 percent of the cost of the program, allowing Connecticut to cover more than 200,000 people with a relatively small budgetary impact.” Currently, the federal government pays 94 percent of the cost of coverage and the state pays 6 percent. The report also identifies challenges associated with HUSKY D, including concerns raised by health care providers about Medicaid payment rates and uncertainty in federal funding.

The report’s analysis indicates that HUSKY D enrollees live in every city and town in Connecticut.  The largest number of covered individuals live in Hartford (18,404), Bridgeport (16,330), New Haven (15,583), Waterbury (13,989), New Britain (8,439) and Stamford (6,110).

The Connecticut Health Foundation is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems. Since it was established in 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grantmaking, public policy research, technical assistance, and convening stakeholders to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut. Since its creation, the Connecticut Health Foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $60 million in 45 cities and towns throughout the state.