Gallup Wellness Tracking

Here's a post from our Director of Strategic Planning, Johanna Skilling, about Gallup's efforts to track wellness. Hope this finds you well -- Jim.

Take it away, Johanna:

If you needed any further proof that wellness is the dominant trend of our times, check out The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which has been asking 1,000 Americans about their well-being every single day since January 2008. As of June 4, the total number surveyed had reached over half a million.

The Gallup folks call the Index “the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life.” Just to underscore the scope of this project, the final survey will take place somewhere around my mother’s 100th birthday… in 2033. That’s 25 years of history on our well-being.

But you don’t have to wait that long to see what’s happening. As you can see, on June 4th, well-being was a notch higher than it was a month ago, emotional health was flat, and physical health was a little worse. You can click on the picture to go right to the site.

But there’s more. For me, one of the standout reports is the Gallup Daily Consumer Mood. Take a look at the current chart, below: While only 7% of us are feeling cheery, 34% are willing to acknowledge that things aren’t all bad, a sunny comparison to even a few months ago.



Buried in the data is an interesting testament to the choices we’re all able to make about our individual well-being – in this case, our own mood! According to Gallup scientist James K. Harter, Ph.D., “The best predictors of good versus bad days are the amount of social time people spend with family or friends and feeling well-rested.”

So have dinner with some friends, get a good night’s rest ... and watch those wellness numbers climb.

- Johanna Skilling, Director of Strategic Planning at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness