Abram Katz Photo
Alycia Santilli and Marie Damiani review findings Tuesday.
If New Haven were a patient, worried doctors would be urging him to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, and see a psychiatrist.
This guy is afraid to take a walk at night for fear of being mugged, frequently does not have enough money for food, subsists largely on sugary soda, and is often paralyzed with depression.
One person in this condition would be bad enough.
But New Haven has thousands of people like this, according to the Commnunity Alliance for Research and Education, a collaboration between Yale and New Haven, which released findings of a 1,205-person health survey Tuesday morning in City Hall.
New Haven is apparently the first and only U.S. city to perform a community-based survey of public health, CARE said. Similar studies are being done in England, Mexico, India and China.
CARE visited random homes in six of New Haven’s less affluent neighborhoods, and found levels of stress, heart disease, lung disease, and asthma higher than the national averages.
About 20 percent of the families questioned went hungry every month. More than a quarter said they were “feeling down” and hopeless, according to the seven-week study conducted in October and November.
Four out of 100 felt that “life is almost unbearable,” a statistic that alarmed Jeanette R. Ickovics, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and director of CARE. Generally, people this unhappy are considered at high risk for suicide, she said.
How to make the population healthier poses a challenge, Ickovicks said.
The key, she said, is to approach smoking, obesity and sedentary behavior with small, incremental goals.
“Our middle name is ‘alliance.’ Our purpose is to mobilize the community. It really does take a village. Together we need to create action,” she said.
“This is an important first step in bringing information to action,” Ikovics said.
“Documenting these critical health challenges also enables us to begin to identify solutions. We look forward to working with the city, colleagues at Yale, and many community partners to improve health in New Haven,” she said.
Further specific findings will be released in upcoming meetings at the six participating neighborhoods, including Dixwell, Fair Haven, West River, Hill North, Newhallville and West Rock, said Alycia Santilli, a social worker and assistant director of CARE.
The first meeting will be held at the Dixwell-Yale Community Center at 101 Ashmun St., on Wednesday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8.
CARE also conducted a survey of 107 stores in the six neighborhoods, finding a less than healthy environment.
Almost two-thirds of the stores were convenience stores, and 20 percent were package stores. Of 91 restaurants tallied, more than 60 percent served fast food.
Santilli said three in 10 of those surveyed smoke. Fifty-three percent said they do not participate in regular healthy exercise, 53 percent reported drinking sugary soda daily, and 56 percent said they felt depressed or anxious in the past month.
“It’s time to change the tide and become one of the healthiest cities in the nation,” said Dr. Chisara Asomugha, New Haven administrator of Community Services.
The 20 surveyors also found community gardens, bicycle paths, and other areas suitable for recreation. The neighborhoods comprised 46 parks and 17 gardens.
Ickovics said the data distributed Tuesday will be subject to further, more complex analysis, looking for possible connections between environmental and health conditions, the effects of stress on chronic diseases, and similar studies.
These results should be available by late this year, she said.
Meanwhile, the city can attempt to make fresh fruit and vegetables more widely available, and reduce street crime so that people are less apprehensive about exercising outdoors, Asomugha said.
Interviewers said they found many homes without nutritionally adequate, or no food. Food baskets were delivered to some of the residences.