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Healthy Choices: Healthier Communities

The health of communities is influenced by a wide range of factors that are all related to each other. These factors are also known as determinants. There are six major determinants that have an impact on the health of communities.

1. Social Determinants

   Public Policy – communities should advocate for and adopt public policies that support health and well-being, for example dedicating more government funds to supporting public recreation facilities.

   Education – communities that provide access to and encourage ongoing education, and where the residents have higher levels of education, tend to be healthier.

   Neighborhood Design – the structure of a community (e.g. spacious sidewalks, having enough recreation and leisure facilities, accessible public parks etc.) plays an important role in the health of a community. This is sometimes called the ‘built environment.’

   Service and Resource Accessibility – communities that make sure that health care services and resources are available and accessible to all members of the community are healthier than those that do not.

2. Environmental Determinants

   Air and Water Quality – communities should work to make sure that their air and water are of the highest quality to maximize health and well-being.

   Green Space – having a lot of safe and green walk-friendly and play-friendly spaces can have a very positive impact on the health of communities.

3. Economic Determinants

   Family-Friendly Workplaces – communities should encourage businesses to be family-friendly, for example encouraging work-life balance or providing on-site childcare for their employees, in order to benefit the health of families and the overall community.

   Strong Social Programs – communities that have strong social programs to support those in need during times of economic difficulty are healthier than those that do not.

4. Physical Determinants

   Physical Activity – communities should attempt to encourage physical activity amongst all community members to maximize health benefits.

   Healthy Eating – communities should work together to make sure that low-cost, healthy foods are available in the community and can be accessed by all members of the community, to promote good nutrition as a strong foundation for good overall health.

5. Psychological (and Spiritual) Determinants

   Healthy Mind – communities where mental health issues are recognized early, and met with understanding and with strong mental health programming and outreach activities, will benefit from stronger individual and community-level mental health.

   Healthy Spirituality – communities that are accepting of various faiths and spiritual followings, in addition to allowing their members to celebrate their spirituality and faiths openly and freely, have a much higher level of overall health and well-being.

6. Cultural Determinants

   Community Identity – communities with a strong sense of identity, one that is respectful of and reflects diversity, have better overall health than communities that do not strongly identify with common goals and visions.

   Community Participation – communities that provide opportunities for members to participate in decision-making processes and in community events are healthier than those that do not.

Some examples of how healthy communities can assist in preventing overweight and obesity in children and youth are:

1. Make sure that green spaces are safe and accessible, and encourage community members, particularly children and youth, to make use of these green spaces for walking and other forms of active play. For example, you could:

   1. Start a community walking group.
   2. Create community walking maps indicating easy, moderate and difficult walks and/or hikes.
   3. Talk to your local government about increasing lighting or signage in public spaces to increase safety

2. Help those community members who have a hard time accessing healthy foods to overcome this difficulty. For example, you could:

   1. Start a community garden so that community members can grow and eat their own fruits and vegetables.
   2. Start a farmers market to increase availability of local fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price.
   3. Start a ‘Grocery Bus’, increasing accessibility to grocery stores for people who cannot easily access transportation.

3. Advocate for policies that promote healthy lifestyles. For example, you could:

   1. Lobby your local political leaders to support healthy lifestyle programming for children and youth in schools.
   2. Get involved in the SCOPE project in your community!

For more information on how to build a healthy community, check out the following links:

BC Healthy Communities
Public Health Agency of Canada, Centre for Health Promotion, Healthy Communities Division

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