Cleveland came in at #25 on a list grading the health and fitness of the top 50 metropolitan areas. Called the AFI report, or the American Fitness Index, the rankings are based off of healthcare access, resources, preventative health behaviors, levels of chronic diseases and more. No word on the inclusion of quantities of local craft IPAs and pierogies.
Cleveland got an overall score of 52.1 in the report, a personal health rank of 33 and a personal health score of 43.5. It also received a 19 in community health ranking and 60.4 community health score.
All of those numbers probably seem meaningless, but the report summary breaks it all down into where we're awesome...
Areas of Excellence (at or better than target goal):...and where we need a bit of work:
• More farmers’ markets per capita
• Higher percent bicycling or walking to work
• Higher Walk Score®
• Higher percent of population within a 10 minute walk to a park
• More ball diamonds per capita
• More park playgrounds per capita
• More recreation centers per capita
• More swimming pools per capita
• More tennis courts per capita
• Higher park-related expenditures per capita
• Higher level of state requirement for Physical Education classes
Improvement Priority Areas (worse than 20% of target goal):Eat your veggies people!
• Lower percent meeting both CDC aerobic and strength activity guidelines
• Lower percent consuming 3+ vegetables per day
• Higher percent currently smoking
• Higher percent obese
• Higher percent with asthma
• Higher percent with angina or coronary heart disease
• Higher percent with diabetes
• Higher death rate for diabetes
• Lower percent of city land area as parkland
• Fewer acres of parkland per capita
• Lower percent using public transportation to work
• Fewer dog parks per capita
• Fewer park units per capita
