LAS VEGAS – Dec. 9, 2008 – Evidence shows that where you live has as much influence over whether you get sick as how you live. Mounting research indicates that community forces – such as social conditions, economic opportunity, food and transportation systems – are contributing factors in more than half of all disease and death. *

So today, CIGNA formally introduced Communities of Health to help cities, towns and neighborhoods consider the social and environmental factors that determine health and create community-based solutions. The first large-scale Communities of Health gathering will take place in Las Vegas on Dec. 11 where more than 200 community leaders will meet at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino.  Dr. Len Syme, professor emeritus of epidemiology and community health and human development at the University of California at Berkeley, will deliver the keynote address. He will draw on 50 years of research to challenge prevailing assumptions about what causes health and illness and what is required to change.

CIGNA has developed, tested and refined the community approach for more than two years in cooperation with business, community, academic and government leaders.

“Despite our best efforts to make health care treatment more effective and costs more manageable, health and economic conditions continue to deteriorate in America.  Currently the U.S. spends more than $2 trillion a year on health care, yet many of the disease states we try to combat continue to escalate, including diabetes, obesity and hypertension,” said Gary Earl, senior vice president at CIGNA and a founding partner of Communities of Health. “It’s time to explore the deep causes of illness and disease that drive people into the care system in the first place.”

Earl stressed that the role of Communities of Health is to bring people together in a way that generates community awareness and action. “Communities of Health is not about CIGNA acting as a consultant to communities or selling a health product,” he said.  

“You can choose to live a healthy lifestyle to the fullest only when those choices are available to you,” Earl explained.  For example, a family without a car with limited or no access to grocery stores, safe parks or playgrounds is less likely to eat right and exercise. “CIGNA's mission to help the people we serve improve their health, well-being and security sets the stage for us to take an integrated approach to both the individual and social dimensions of health. While access to care and individual behavior will always be important, that is only half the story when it comes to what determines health.” 

CIGNA is starting with a pilot program in Las Vegas because in this city of nearly 600,000, community conditions have led to a population at risk.  According to Earl, high schools in the SilverState graduate far fewer students than other states. Nevada tops the national list of home foreclosures. In Ward 5 of Las Vegas, a district of nearly 97,000, 10 percent of people are unemployed, more than 18 percent of residents live below the poverty line, and 17 percent of residents don’t have access to a car.  Until this fall, residents of Ward 5 had been without a full-service supermarket since August of 2004. 

 Earl is intimately familiar with Las Vegas. He resides in the city and formerly served as the corporate vice president of benefits and health care for Caesars Entertainment’s employees and family members.

To set the stage for the Dec. 11 Communities of Health forum in Las Vegas, CIGNA has worked since May 2008 with more than 50 businesses, organizations, agencies, health institutions and neighborhoods. These partners include Nevada Alliance to Eliminate Health Disparities, the Nevada Health Services Coalition representing the state’s 21 largest employers, state and local legislators, the Southern Nevada Health District and the Las Vegas Diabetes and Obesity Committee. At the grassroots level, the Communities of Health team has engaged local agencies such as Community Partners for Better Health, boards of education and schools, and religious organizations.

On the national front, CIGNA has collaborated on methodology, research and measurement with public health experts, social epidemiologists and biostatisticians across a range of leading institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

In addition to the pilot project in Las Vegas, CIGNA will begin a Communities of Health pilot in Houston and is conducting ongoing test-and-learn labs with employers, small organizations, neighborhoods and academia around the country. In 2009 Communities of Health will expand into new pilot locations.

Three white papers are available to learn more about Communities of Health. These white papers provide a Communities of Health Prospectus and describe the social and environmental determinants of health and how community factors can compromise conventional efforts to address childhood obesity.A Communities of Health website will launch later this month.

More information on the Las Vegas forum is available by contacting rick.brush@cigna.com. Members of the media who would like to attend the Las Vegas forum may contact Leigh Woodward at 602.371.2019.

*Communities of Health Prospectus, © March 2008

About CIGNA

CIGNA (NYSE:CI), a global health service company, is dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and security. CIGNA Corporation's operating subsidiaries provide an integrated suite of medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy and vision care benefits, as well as group life, accident and disability insurance, to approximately 47 million people throughout the United States and around the world. To learn more about CIGNA, visit www.cigna.com.