A comprehensive report on the general physical health in the Tampa Bay area released on Wednesday shows that while on some key indexes, the region is doing okay, but on several other benchmarks, the area lags seriously behind the rest of the state and the country.
The study was produced by ONE BAY, and their report is called How Healthy is Tampa Bay? An Assessment of Our Region's Health.
Denise Remus, chief quality officer for BayCare Health System, said that diabetes, suicide, and motor vehicle deaths are three categories where the Tampa Bay region's health is worse comparably than the rest of Florida or the other 49 states.
Officials say diabetes has the most ominous negative trending happening, as the adjusted percentage of adults with the ailment was listed at 5.7 percent in the U.S. in 2007 – but it's at 8 percent in the Bay area. Obesity rates have risen as well, and the report says that nearly 40 percent of Tampa Bay residents never break a sweat – that is, they do no exercise of any kind.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2011.