Dallas County Health Officials Take Look At Unhealthiest Zip Codes, Look For Solutions
DALLAS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — Dallas County health officials took a data driven look at the unhealthiest zip codes Thursday and called on all stakeholders to work toward solutions.
"You've got things like early childhood education, poverty, having well-paying jobs and those types of things that really becomes a community effort," Parkland Health Systems President and CEO Dr. Fred Cerise said. "And what we wanted to do was just shine a light on the fact that there are inequities across the community and we're all going to have to do our part to address these needs."
The lowest life expectancy in Dallas County is in zip code 75215, and the highest is in 75204.
"It's a 23-year gap," said Dr. Phil Huang, Director of Dallas County Health & Human Services. "I mean just by what zip code you live in."
It's just one of the many findings highlighted in the federally mandated report tasked with identifying "at risk" and underserved populations. And now the County's health leaders are promising immediate changes based on the findings.
"If your health is not good, nothing else really matter," Dallas Commissioner John Wiley Price said.