Blue Zones Project Results: Fort Worth, TX

• 31% decrease in smoking, reducing smoking rate to 13.5%

• Nine-point increase in residents who exercise at least 30 minutes three or more days of the week, now at 62%

• Overall 2018 Well-Being Index score rose to 62.5, a gain of 3.7 points or 6% since 2014

• $20B Lifetime Reduced Smoking Value

Since the launch of Blue Zones Project in Fort Worth, the health and well-being of residents has surged while the U.S. overall health score has dropped. According to the annual Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index®, Fort Worth’s overall 2018 Well-Being Index score rose to 62.5, a gain of nearly four points since 2014, when the city began working with Blue Zones Project®.

Each point increase in well-being for a population leads to approximately a two percent reduction in ER visits and hospital utilization, and to approximately a one percent reduction in total health care costs. This equals tens of millions of dollars of healthcare savings per year.

Meanwhile the U.S. Well-Being Index score—which outpaced the Fort Worth score by 3 points in 2014—is 61.3, a decline of 0.5 over the same period. Compared annually to close to 190 metro areas reported nationally, Fort Worth’s equivalent rank for well-being rose from 185th in 2014 to 31st in 2019.

According to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index (WBI)

• Adult residents of the Fort Worth have reported substantially elevated levels of overall well-being in the four years since measurement began in 2014.
• Fort Worth’s Well-Being Index score 2018 = 62.5
• Fort Worth’s Well-Being Index score 2014 = 58.8

The section of the city with the lowest well-being, East Southeast, saw the greatest improvement. With a 10.9% well-being improvement over five years, which is a 6.1-point increase moving from 55.9 in 2014 to 62.0 in 2018.

What happens when you increase well-being by 1-point?

• 2.2% less likelihood of hospital admission
  1.7% less likelihood of ER visit
  1.0% less likelihood of incurring healthcare costs

What happens when you increase well-being by 10%?

• 5.0% fewer unscheduled absences
  5.0% higher reported job performance
  6.0% more days of ‘best work’ in 28-day period

*This occurred during a period of decline in well-being nationally, with the U.S. Well-Being Index score dropping from 61.8 in Q2-2014 to 61.3 in Q2-2018.

Fort Worth moved from 185th to 58th in the Gallup-Sharecare annual database of around 190 U.S. communities. Fort Worth has also had statistically significant improvement in all five elements of well-being since baseline year.

Reduced Smoking Rates in Fort Worth, TX

• Adult Smoking Rate in 2018 = 13.5%
• Adult Smoking Rate in 2014 = 19.6%

Fort Worth has saved an estimated $268 million in 2018 compared to 2014 based due to the reduced smoking rate among its adult residents.

Gallup estimates Fort Worth’s lost productivity due to smoking (at a rate if 19.6%) was about $602 million per year across all of its employers in 2014. In 2018 Gallup estimates that these lost productivity costs were reduced by about $187 million per year as a function of the lower smoking rate, likely representing a substantial boost to the economy.

In Fort Worth, the 6.1 percentage point estimated reduction in adult smoking translates to 38,074 fewer smokers than in 2014, yielding a savings in health care utilization of about $81 million per year compared to that year.

Other well-being improvements