Center for Health Transformation Georgia Project

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

A new measure of well-being is now available - the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.  We are very excited that we now have a way to track the impact of our projects at the community level!  The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is designed to be the Dow Jones of health, giving a daily measure of people's well-being at the close of every day. With a daily measure, determining the correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live, and how it impacts their well-being, is now possible. Additionally, the index will increase an understanding of how those factors impact the financial health of corporations and communities. 

The Index is a composite of scores of six domains: Life Evaluation, Emotional Health, Physical Health, Healthy Behaviors, Work Environment, and Basic Access.  The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tracks the well-being of U.S. residents 350 days a year interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day, with the exception of major holidays.

As of the posting of this entry 446,959 surveys have been taken.  The Index seems to reflect the decreasing economy.  The Well-Being Index and its domains are tracked on a monthly basis and the most recent report (Feb 2009) shows all domains fell from February to January except for Healthy Behaviors, which was up 1 percent. Perhaps we as a society are using better coping mechanisms --- or motivated to decrease the cost of our healthcare by making better life style decisions.  This is a very interesting index to track.  We look forward to integrating the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index into our 21st Century Health Community Projects.

Information is Power!

USA Today reported on the impact that posting calorie information has on what people order.  Some New York City restaurant chains are required to post calorie information on their food items – making calorie count as visible as cost.  40% of New Yorkers say this has had a great impact on what they order; 42% say this has somewhat impacted what they order.

Would seeing the calorie count impact what YOU order? 

Keep it Simple!

An interesting study reported in Scientific American Mind [Feb/Mar 2009] shows the power of simplicity in changing behavior.  The purpose of the study was to explore the complex relationship of effort, motivation, and the ease with which we think about a task in our mind.  Could the simplicity of how a task is described and processed affect our attitude towards the task itself and ultimately our ability to do the work?

To find out, two psychologists at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor set up a study to test the effect of two different sets of instructions on motivating 20 year old students to exercise regularly.   One set of instructions was written in easy to read font and the other in a type of font that looked like it was written by hand with a Japanese brush – making it unfamiliar and difficult to read. 

After the students read the instructions they were asked questions about the exercise regimen – how long they thought it would take, whether it would be boring, if it would flow naturally.  The students were also asked if they would likely make exercise a routine part of their day.

The students who read the instruction printed in basic font were much more open to exercising and to make exercise a part of their day.  Those who struggled with the Japanese brush strokes had no intention of going to the gym.

What can we take away from this?  Pay attention to the font that you use.  It has an impact on how difficult the task appears. Keep it simple!  When creating documents to encourage exercise and healthy eating, keep the message and the typeface basic.