Since its establishment in 2010, Blue Zones Project by Sharecare has worked to transform well-being in 71 communities across North America, reaching more than 4.5 million residents of those communities. This decade-plus of experience in implementing the Blue Zones Project collective-impact approach to community well-being provides a unique opportunity to determine the influence the initiative has had in advancing sustained, long-term well-being improvement at the community level.
A study on the impact of Blue Zones Project on the well-being of the Southern California communities of Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach (known as the Beach Cities) was published in the BMJ Open medical journal. “Can a collective-impact initiative improve well-being in three US communities? Findings from a prospective repeated cross-sectional study” provides a comprehensive analysis of eight years of well-being data from the Beach Cities.
In 2010 the Beach Cities were the first communities to implement Blue Zones Project in the wake of the initial pilot program conducted in Albert Lea, Minnesota, with key leadership and support provided by the Beach Cities Health District (BCHD). The Beach Cities and BCHD chose this community-led, collective-impact approach to measurably improve well-being, economic vitality, and resilience across their entire population. Why well-being? Higher well-being is associated with a number of important outcomes, including longer life expectancy, lower healthcare costs and utilization, and higher productivity.
Through Blue Zones Project activities over 8 years, more than 26 000 residents were engaged, 160 employers created healthier work environments, 120 restaurants, and grocery stores made healthy changes to the food environment, and policy-makers adopted built-environment and tobacco-control policies and partnered with the school districts to integrate gardens, physical activity, and social-emotional wellness into schools.
The study utilized data from Well-Being Index surveys conducted annually or bi-annually in the Beach Cities by Sharecare and Gallup between 2010-2017 of a representative sample of the population. The study primarily assessed how the Life Evaluation Index (LEI) in the Beach Cities and health behaviors and outcomes changed over time, and how these changes compared with that of similar cities and for the nation as a whole.
The LEI component of the Well-Being Index asks respondents to imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents their best possible life, and the bottom represents their worst possible life. Respondents are asked on which step of the ladder they feel they stand at the time of the survey, and on which step they think they will stand 5 years in the future.
From 2010 to 2017, the Beach Cities experienced greater increases in overall life evaluation than those experienced by both the similar communities group and the nation. The difference between the Beach Cities and similar communities was driven largely by greater increases in current life satisfaction in the Beach Cities, while the difference between the Beach Cities and the nation was driven by greater increases in both current life satisfaction and future life optimism in the Beach Cities.
In addition, Beach Cities residents who reported in 2017 that they were aware of Blue Zones Project had a higher mean LEI score than residents who reported that they were not aware. Residents with higher levels of engagement with Blue Zones Project also had higher mean LEI scores than residents with lower levels of engagement.
The study also assessed how health behaviors and outcomes changed over time for Beach Cities residents. In addition to the LEI data, secondary outcomes considered in the survey analysis included self-reported behaviors such as fruit and vegetable consumption, weekly physical activity, the incidence of smoking, and the incidence of overweight and obesity as determined based on the respondent’s height and weight. Also studied were healthcare access considerations such as having health insurance coverage and having a personal medical doctor, and emotional health indicators including levels of stress, worry, and enjoyment in the respondent’s life.
The Beach Cities outpaced the similar communities group and nation in some of these outcomes as well, including higher percentages of people reporting having a personal doctor in the Beach Cities than in both the similar communities and the nation as a whole, as well as lower levels of stress and higher levels of enjoyment in the Beach Cities when compared to the nation.
Ultimately, findings confirmed that the strategic implementation of a community-led, collective-impact initiative, sustained over multiple years, contributed to significant improvements in health and well-being in the Beach Cities.
The full article is available on the BMJ Open website.
