Short Takes

Columbia Report Highlights Healthy Heights

Despite the many challenges it faces, Washington Heights is a remarkably healthy place to live, according to a new report.

The telling statistics contained in the newly revised publication The Health of a Community II, a joint effort by CSPH and Columbia University’s School of Nursing, reveal that “despite all its problems, Washington Heights is a remarkably healthy place to live,” says CSPH epidemiologist Richard Garfield, Dr.P.H. The recently released 95-page fact book documents all aspects of health and well-being in the northern Manhattan community of 200,000 people.

Acknowledging that Washington Heights faces many challenges, including low income and poor education levels, a high rate of single-parent households and drug use, and a large immigrant population, Garfield, editor of the report, insists that “if you only look at these problems and needs, you miss half the story.” The data back him up, suggesting that extended family support systems and the informal economic sector, not normally measured by government entities, may make the difference.

According to the report, rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality, deaths due to heart disease and cancer, hospitalizations for diagnoses avoidable by adequate primary care, and most other health measures, are more positive in Washington Heights than in comparable neighborhoods. It was also found that Washington Heights has crime rates only slightly higher than those of the Upper West Side, and that only one indicator—deaths among young adult males—is worse in Washington Heights than in New York City overall.

CSPH Dean Allan Rosenfield, M.D., called the report “an excellent example of an academic health center working on a collection of information that will be of significant use to its community—to individuals, to local community organizations, as well as to those in the academic community concerned about local health-related issues.”

Copies of the new report can be obtained by calling (212) 305-3248.