In the coming months, Georgia Public Broadcasting will be airing a
30-part radio series about your health and the health of Georgians.
Each story is designed to help you understand more about health and
sickness and the impact that health and health care policy has on our
lives.
The health problems in Georgia are great.
- Health Status - The health status of Georgians ranked near the bottom - 45th among the states in 2004.
- Health Disparity - Health status varies greatly among
Georgians. Infant mortality rates in African Americans are double that
of Whites. Hispanics are twice as likely to die from diabetes as
Whites. African Americans are more than twice as likely to die from
hypertensive heart disease as Whites. - Lack of Health Insurance - Our lifestyle - whether or not we
smoke, blood pressure levels, obesity, stress, alcohol use and drug
abuse - has a huge influence on our health. In fact, lifestyle has more
of an impact on our health status than genetics, the environment we
live in, and the healthcare we receive. When lifestyles are changed,
health status improves.
The solutions to some of these problems are within our control.
Communities, employers and employees, medical centers, and our health
departments are developing innovative and imaginative approaches to
solving these problems and to improving health.
In the coming months we will be reporting on these programs that
help Georgians improve their eating habits, decrease their rates of
smoking, and increase their amount of physical activity. We'll also be
examining communities' novel approaches to screening for cancer,
funding health care, and delivering primary health care services.
We welcome your comments and suggestions and look forward to
hearing from you about your health in Georgia. Please write to us at healthdesk@gpb.org.
The GPB Health Desk is supported in part by a grant provided by 
