Today, Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY) and Blue Zones, LLC, announced the establishment of Healthways-Blue Zones Vitality QuestSM, an exclusive, strategic relationship to create, support and sustain a national movement to improve community health and well-being, initially for cities in the U.S.
“Healthways has already achieved a tremendous amount of success bringing behavioral economic and clinical science to real world application, helping individuals better manage their health and well-being”
Vitality Quest will be working with select communities across the nation to help them earn designation as a Healthways-Blue Zones Vitality CitySM, a community in which people are healthier, happier, live longer, are more vital and more productive, and who enjoy an improved standard of living — in other words, a city whose citizens enjoy a measurably higher level of well-being and lower healthcare costs.
Vitality Quest is launching a national search for a highly motivated community wanting to take advantage of the best expertise available to become the inaugural Vitality City. Civic or municipal leaders and organizations wanting to learn more or submit a Statement of Interest may do so by visiting www.vitality-city.com. The deadline for statement submission is May 14, 2010.
“Through this partnership, we will be helping communities improve their health and well-being by putting the neighborhood concept back into health,” said Blue Zones founder and world-renowned explorer Dan Buettner. “We know from deep science that when communities embrace certain principles and implement sustainable policy and environmental changes, it makes it easier for individuals, businesses and government entities within those communities to support one another, driving real, long-term, meaningful improvement. Healthways has the tools, capabilities, mission and experience to scale Vitality Quest to more and larger communities than Blue Zones has yet engaged.”
Numerous U.S. cities, both large and small, have inquired about the Blue Zones framework and the possibility of earning a Vitality City designation as the result of the successful 2009 pilot of an AARP-Blue Zones project in Albert Lea, Minn., as reported by USA Today, ABC News, NBC’s Today Show and others.
In Albert Lea, Blue Zones worked with local government and community leaders for more than a year to design and implement large- and small-scale environmental and policy changes to encourage residents to adopt and maintain healthier lifestyles, while developing the social, commercial, communal and professional networks needed to support them, resulting in:
- An average weight loss of two pounds for every Albert Lea resident
- An increase in average life expectancy of 3.1 years
- A 20 percent reduction in absenteeism for key employers
- A community-wide effort that actively engaged 60 percent of the city’s restaurants, 51 percent of its employers, 100 percent of its schools and 27 percent of its citizens
“Other Vitality Cities will exist where the environment and the individual intersect to create healthier, happier, longer-lived people,” said Ben R. Leedle, Jr., Healthways’ chief executive officer. “People spend, on average, the majority of their lives within a 30-mile radius of their home. Support for individual well-being improvement can’t be effective with a national PR campaign; it requires all facets of the community working together within that home radius – the places where people really live, work, eat, shop and socialize – to sustain real and meaningful change. That’s what this partnership is focused on achieving: the mobilization and convergence of individuals and communities to improve their, and ultimately America’s, health and well-being.”