LCHM Winter18 - 12
FEATURE
CREATING A
Healthy Community
BY BONNIE S. COYLE, MD, MS
Chair, Dept of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, St Luke's University Health Network
A
t first glance, it may seem that we have a paradox when you look at the health of our
nation. Despite being a world leader, our country lags behind many other countries
on health-related metrics. Our life expectancy is shorter than many other countries,
and in a concerning turn of events, life expectancy dropped slightly this past year for
the FIRST time in my 30 years serving as a preventive medicine physician. We pay nearly
twice as much per person for health care as the next closest country, and yet we have higher
rates of most chronic diseases, higher rates of suicide and injury, and significantly worse
behavioral health problems. So how can it be that our country, with all of our technological
advances and our high standard of living, still cannot compete with many other industrialized countries in keeping our residents and communities healthy? While the answer to this
question is complex, understanding a few key concepts helps to get a better understanding
of why we compare so poorly to other countries on our health rankings.Ultimately, we will
need to adopt a paradigm shift related to how we view the concept of health in order to
become the healthiest country.
12 Lehigh County Health & Medicine | WINTER 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of LCHM Winter18
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https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Summer21
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Spring21
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https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Spring20
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https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Fall19
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https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Spring19
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Winter18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHM_Fall18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHMSummer18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHMSpring18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHMWinter2018
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https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/Fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHMSummer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/LehighCountyHealth_Medicine/LCHMSpring2017
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com