Gallup Insights on TEDMED's Top 20 Great Challenges

Delegates at the annual TEDMED conference -- currently underway in Washington, D.C. -- held a vote on the 20 greatest health and medicine challenges for 2012. Determining this list of 20 is part of TEDMED's Great Challenges Program, a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide America and the world with a "comprehensive view" on the "most complex and persistent health problems."

Now that the list is set, TEDMED will spend the year investigating these 20 great challenges by interviewing experts and leaders on the topics and will broadcast these segments at TEDMED.com. TEDMED will also conduct webinars on the 20 issues.

As TEDMED begins its exploration of these issues, Gallup data and research can provide information about how the United States is doing on some of these key challenges and insights into how to address some of them.

Inventing Wellness Programs: The first challenge on the TEDMED list is one Gallup knows a lot about. Gallup wellbeing experts Tom Rath and Jim Harter spent years researching the essential elements of wellbeing. They eventually narrowed it down to five -- career, social, financial, physical, and community. The elements are universal and interconnected -- and they go beyond the eating right and exercise parts of wellbeing to reveal what makes life worthwhile. Rath and Harter wrote a book about these five elements and created a program that empowers organizations and individuals to measure and improve their wellbeing. They also analyze the costs to workplaces of not managing employees' wellbeing here. 


The Caregiver Crisis: Gallup and Healthways have conducted a large amount of research on caregiving in America. Their surveys find that more than one in six American workers also act as caregivers and that the middle-aged, blacks, and Hispanics are among the most likely to be caregivers. Gallup also knows that caregivers face significant physical and emotional issues and that caregiving costs the U.S. economy about $25.2 billion in lost productivity per year. TEDMED wants to explore the question: "What innovations can we develop specifically to support the caregiver community?" Well, the Gallup-Healthways data, taken together, reveal that a start would be providing caregivers the support and assistance they need in the workplace. Specifically, many working caregivers lack access to support groups, ask-a-nurse type services, financial/legal advisers, and assisted living counselors -- all of which could help offset the challenges they face.

The Obesity Crisis: Gallup and Healthways track American adults' weight status daily as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Although obesity declined very slightly in 2011, it remains high at 26.1%. When you add to that the percentage of adults who are overweight, you end up with more than half the U.S. adult population at an unhealthy weight. Targeting the groups who are struggling the most with obesity -- blacks, low-income Americans, and those aged 45 to 64 -- may be a first step toward addressing the nation's costly and deadly obesity crisis.

Managing Chronic Diseases: High blood pressure (30%) and high cholesterol (26.2%) are the most prevalent chronic illnesses in the United States. Asthma (11.7%) and diabetes (10.9%) also affect large portions of the population. Reducing obesity, and getting more Americans to exercise frequently and eat healthier are three key challenges to tackling high rates of chronic disease.

Making Prevention Popular: Gallup wellbeing experts Tom Rath and Jim Harter, in their aforementioned book "Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements," describe what their research found on how to boost prevention habits. One of their major discoveries is the need to "make better choices in the moment." The authors note that "problems occur when our daily actions work against the best interests of our overall, long-term wellbeing." Rath and Harter say that if individuals find small opportunities each day to change their routine by even a little and set what they call "positive defaults" people can significantly improve their wellbeing in the long-run.

Impact of Poverty on Health: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data find that health disparities across income groups in the United States are wide-ranging. Lower-income Americans are more likely than their higher-income counterparts to have chronic health problems, to be obese, and to experience negative emotions and are less likely to have access to healthcare and to have good health habits.

Impact of Stress: TEDMED asks: "Given that stress is difficult to quantify and varies from person to person, how do we better understand the role of stress in the larger picture of health?" Well, it turns out, Gallup and Healthways actually know a great deal about how to measure stress. In fact, they monitor it in the United States on a daily basis. The more than one million interviews Gallup and Healthways have conducted since 2008 reveal the following key points: 1. Stress is highest among those in their 20s and then declines significantly with age; 2. Those who spend more time socializing experience less stress; 3. Workers who are engaged in their jobs are immune to stress from long commutes; 4. Americans experienced some of their most stressful days during the financial crisis; 5. Very religious Americans experience less stress than those who are less religious; and 6. Those who are obese report more stress than those who aren't. Those are just some of the discoveries Gallup and Healthways have made about stress. You can read more here.

Promoting Active Lifestyles: See "Making Prevention Popular" above. Leading an active lifestyle is an inextricable part of prevention.

Addressing Healthcare Costs: This is a big one. A really big one. And one that leaders will need to come at from a lot of different angles -- this involves legal, economic, and ethical perspectives. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently debating the who should pay part, as they argue the legality of President Barack Obama's healthcare law. But, regardless of the court's decision, the healthcare industry, businesses, and individuals will all play a role in addressing the incredibly complex issue of high healthcare costs. You can review Gallup's need-to-know facts about healthcare here and learn about the uninsured, whether the 2010 healthcare law is having an impact and what Americans think about it, and how Americans feel about the U.S. healthcare system.

Learn more about all of the 20 great challenges here. As TEDMED further explores these challenges in the year ahead, we will continue to provide you with everything Gallup knows about each topic here on Thrive. Gallup and Healthways survey 1,000 American adults about their health and wellbeing every day and report new findings every week at Gallup.com.

Who's Most Likely to Be Thriving and Suffering Worldwide

Gallup is out with its 2011 global rankings of "thriving" and "suffering" -- encompassing 146 countries. Those who are thriving tend to have higher incomes, more education, good health, and social support. Those who are suffering often have lower incomes, less education, and less access to basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare.

Gallup classifies respondents as "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering" according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Gallup considers people to be thriving if they rate their current lives a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher, and classifies people as suffering if they rate their current lives a 4 or lower and their lives in five years a 4 or lower.

Nearly one-quarter of adults worldwide (24%) are "thriving," while 13% are "suffering." Here is a summary of who is thriving, suffering, making progress, and falling behind worldwide:

Thriving

Bests

• Denmark had the largest percentage of thriving adults (74%), trailed by other wealthy and developed countries such as Canada and the Netherlands, both at 66%.
• Wellbeing was generally highest again in the Americas, where a median of 39% were thriving.
• Ghana had the largest gain in thriving in 2011 (29%), increasing 19 percentage points from 2010.

Worsts

• Cambodia ranked last for thriving, with only 2% of its population thriving.
• African countries generally dominate the list of countries where thriving is lowest, accounting for more than half of the 28 countries where thriving was 10% or lower.
• Fewer than one in 10 were thriving in Egypt (9%) and Yemen (8%), where unrest continued throughout much of 2011.
• El Salvador had the largest loss in thriving in 2011 (17%), decreasing 22 percentage points from 2010.

Suffering

Bests

• Suffering was as low as 1% or less in the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Canada, Thailand, and Brazil.
• Median suffering was lowest in the Americas at 6%.
• Suffering declined the most in Macedonia, falling 25 percentage points last year from 38% in 2010.

Worsts

• Bulgaria had the negative distinction of leading the "suffering" list with 45% of its population suffering, followed by Yemen (38%) and Armenia (35%).
• Suffering spiked in places such as Iran, Afghanistan, and El Salvador in 2011 -- earning them a spot near the top of the world's most suffering list.
• Suffering increased the most in El Salvador, climbing to 33% in 2011 from 9% in 2010.

To see wellbeing metrics for more than 150 countries, visit Gallup's Worldwide Tracking interactive.