ASU teams up with Maricopa County to address local life expectancy gap
A view of south Phoenix as seen from a drone on Nov. 1, 2023. Photo by Alex Cabrera/Arizona State University
Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions is partnering with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to address a 14-year life expectancy gap between residents of north Scottsdale and south Phoenix.
Deborah Williams, a director and clinical assistant professor in the college, is the principal investigator for ASU’s involvement in the five-year project, which is being funded by a $1 million award in Community Solutions Funding from the board of supervisors.
In announcing the funding late last month, supervisor Steve Gallardo said, “It’s a simple fact that where you live, even down to the ZIP code, can impact your quality of life.
"When I heard just how big the life expectancy gap is between folks in my district (District 5, which incorporates part of south Phoenix) and folks in other parts of town, I knew we had to do something.”
ASU News talked with Williams about the university’s involvement, the research that already has taken place and what she hopes will be accomplished over the next five years.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Question: How did ASU get involved in this project?
Answer: Equality Health (a health care group based in Phoenix) came to us in 2022 with the goal of creating a five-year well-being initiative. They wanted us to help develop some sort of baseline information and provide baseline assessments to help them determine the projects they’re going to put on the ground. We did the initial analysis, and then we partnered with Equity Health on the proposal to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for them to invest money into some kind of well-being initiative in the area.
Q: ASU and Equity Health talked to more than 800 stakeholders and held six Community Voices meeting to gather feedback. Can you go into more detail about that research and what you heard from south Phoenix residents?
A: We facilitated those six community listening sessions to get feedback from residents on the feasibility and the desirability of some kind of initiative in the area. And there was a lot of positive sentiment on that. They also identified some particular areas of concern like the lack of healthy food environments, both access to and quality of fresh foods. Also, the built environment, which includes everything from parks to lighting to streets, transportation, housing — things they felt were significantly lacking in the area. They also really wanted to see improvements in schools and school lunches, and a big thing they wanted was health education for the young people. There was a real emphasis on the future of the area and the youth. Safety was also another huge concern. And then, of course, access to health care, not only primary care but preventative specialists.
The other thing we heard was a strong sense of community, feeling like they should be involved and take action on their own behalf. They didn’t want someone coming in and telling them what was needed.
Q: Did you get any feedback that surprised you?
A: Not really. I thought they were very aware of the issues. They were concerned about childhood obesity. They were concerned about worksite health and social support. What I thought I might not hear is that there was a lot of hope and emphasis on community action, even though there are a lot of barriers to change.
Q: Now that ASU has met with residents, and the award has been granted by Maricopa County, what’s the next step?
A: Our role is really to partner with Equity Health in providing the baseline assessments to help design the programs that will be put in place. We know that sort of the main domains are health, equity, food, ecosystems, a built environment, educational access and retention. That’s a tall order. I’m not sure everything can get done in five years. But we can look specifically at things like, “Where are the grocery stores located? Can we get partners to develop more community gardens? How can we work with the schools?” That’s just really to help guide the community-based organizations and coalitions.
We’ll help them while they design these projects to make sure that there are measurable metrics that we can assess so we can actually see if there’s change.
Q: What do you hope is the end result five years from now?
A: What we’d really like to see is not only a growing impetus into investing in the area but a real change in the built environment. It’s really hard to exercise if there’s not a sidewalk or lights. So, really focus on building up structures that provide a basis for good help. I also feel really strongly that we as a college want to be socially embedded in our communities. And because (the college) is in downtown Phoenix, this is in our community. I don’t think this initiative is going to solve all of the problems. We can’t; it’s too complex. But I think it will be a good start to showing what can be done and maybe diminish that life expectancy gap.
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