Well-Being in the Iowa 2nd Congressional District

Gallup-Healthways have put out a new survey assessing the well-being of people in the USA. The research and methodology underlying the Well-Being Index is based on the World Health Organization definition of health as "not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being." Below is how Iowa's Fightin' 2nd District looks according to those nimble number crunchers at Gallup.

The Well-Being Index is comprised of over 40 questions providing an Overall Composite metric based on six individual and interrelated Domains and Indices of Well Being: Life Evaluation, Emotional Health, Physical Health, Healthy Behavior, Work Environment, and Basic Access.

Raw Score: 65.6
National Rank: 200/435
State Rank: 4/5

Life Evaluation This Index combines the evaluation of one's present life situation with one's anticipated life situation 5 years from now.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index asks Americans to evaluate their lives by imagining a "ladder" with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where "0" represents the worst possible life and "10" represents the best possible life.
Evaluation of present life situation
Anticipated life situation 5 years from now

Raw Score: 39.3
National Rank: 239/435
State Rank: 2/5

Work Quality This Index surveys workers on several factors to gauge their feelings and perceptions about their work environment. Prior large-scale meta-analyses have shown important linkages between worker engagement and several organizational performance outcomes, such as worker attendance, retention, productivity, profitability, safety, and customer ratings.

Positive work environments are characterized as those where workers express satisfaction with their work, report using their strengths in their area of work, and work in a culture of trust and partnership. Conversely, negative work environments lack satisfying work and are characterized by poor supervision.

This index is based on asking workers the following questions each day:
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your job or the work you do?
At work, do you get to use your strengths to do what you do best every day, or not?
Does your supervisor at work treat you more like he or she is your boss or your partner?
Does your supervisor always create an environment that is trusting and open, or not?

Raw Score: 49.6
National Rank: 281/435
State Rank: 5/5

Basic Access The Basic Access Index is based on thirteen items measuring resident's access to food, shelter, and healthcare, and a safe and satisfying place to live.
Satisfaction with community or area
Area getting better as a place to live
Clean water
Medicine
Safe place to exercise
Affordable fruits and vegetables
Feel safe walking alone at night
Enough money for food
Enough money for shelter
Enough money for healthcare
Visited a dentist recently
Have a doctor
Have health insurance

Raw Score: 85.6
National Rank: 127/435
State Rank: 4/5

Healthy Behavior The Health Behavior index includes items measuring life style habits with established relationships to health outcomes. This index is based on four key items relating to smoking, a healthy diet, and exercise.
Raw Score: 61.6
National Rank: 309/435
State Rank: 2/5

Physical Health The projected cost of American healthcare by 2017 has been estimated at over $4 trillion. At least 50% of these costs will be due to preventable disease, including diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and strokes.

The physical health index is comprised questions related to:
Estimates of Body Mass Index
Disease burden
Sick days
Physical pain
Daily energy
History of disease
Daily health experiences

Raw Score: 78.7
National Rank: 94/435
State Rank: 1/5

Emotional Health This index is primarily a composite of respondents' daily experiences. It includes one item that probes for prior history of diagnosed depression. In the remaining items, respondents are asked to think about how they felt yesterday, from the morning until the end of the day - who they were with, what they did, and how they felt based on responses to the following nine items:
Smiling or Laughter
Being treated with respect
Enjoyment
Happiness
Worry
Sadness
Anger
Stress
Learning or doing something interesting

Raw Score: 79.0
National Rank: 201/435
State Rank: 5/5