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I was reading the featured stories on Yahoo on Monday morning. The article titled America's Fittest Cities 2010, caught my eye. So, I'm reading that Washington, D.C. is the healthiest City in the U.S. for the third year in a row. After taking a Behavioral Statistics last semester, I'm thinking like a Psychologist, and wondering how did they (the American College of Sport's Medicine) collect this data. Turns out "The AFI data report reflects a composite of preventive health behaviors, levels of chronic disease conditions, health care access, and community resources and policies that support physical activity " (redOrbit). After spending my Spring Break in Washington DC with Alternative Spring Break to volunteer with organizations that focus on HIV/AIDS awareness, education, and resources, I learned a lot about D.C., from what I learned from residents and the organizations that I volunteered with and what I saw, I do not agree that D.C. is the healthiest city. What really gets me is that D.C. was still named the healthiest city in the US when the data collected to name the healthiest city was based on diseases. What they fail to recognize is that 3% of D.C.'s residents have HIV or AIDS, something I learned during my Spring Break. Mind you once a disease has infected 1% of the population the CDC (Center for Disease and Control) deems the disease to be an epedemic. So, how is it that D.C. can have an HIV/AIDS epedemic and be the healthiest city in the nation?
To read the actual article visit:
http://bit.ly/aHeaKd
To read more about HIV/AIDS in DC, visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/14/AR2009031402176.html
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