It’s not a surprise that the Bronx ranks as the least healthy of New York’s 62 counties.
There’s even a hashtag the borough has adopted — #Not62 — to draw attention to getting healthier. And yet, there the Bronx remains — at the bottom of the list for the seventh year — according to a broad health study released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
But it’s not just the Bronx. Brooklyn’s story is nearly as troubling. It ranks second-to-last in several categories. And although Queens ranks 17th, it has significant residential segregation, the study found, a factor researchers say likely means some of its neighborhoods are in poor health, with, for example, higher obesity, smoking and poverty rates.
The data must be a wake-up call for the entire city. A staggering 29 percent of the Bronx’s residents and 20 percent of Brooklyn’s say they’re in “poor to fair health,” compared with 16 percent nationwide and statewide, and 14 percent in Manhattan. Residents of the two boroughs are worse off in many ways, from the number of days they’re in poor physical or mental health and their numbers of sexually transmitted infections, to their statistics in crime, unemployment, housing and education.
Activists and local politicians are trying by encouraging local stores to stock healthy foods and creating school-based health centers. Those efforts won the Bronx the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “culture of health” prize. That’s good, but the data show the problems remain.
City and state officials must make the health of all NYC residents a priority. City health Commissioner Mary Bassett recognizes the problem, and points to plans for Neighborhood Health Action Centers to open by year-end in Brownsville, East Harlem and Tremont. That’s a start. The city must create comprehensive solutions and replicate others’ best practices. Pay attention to every neighborhood. Develop programs focused not only on medical needs, but also the larger problems that can make living in NYC stressful and difficult. It’s time for the entire city to get healthy.
