Study Claims Lubbock Is One of America’s Sickest Cities
A study done by Bay Alarm Medical looked at about 500,000 geo-tagged illness-related tweets across the country and came up with a list of the sickest cities and states. Lubbock made the top 10 sickest cities.
The group specifically targeted content relating to calling in sick from work or even specific illnesses. Tweets that simply mentioned "I'm sick of..." were purposely excluded from their research.
Not only were they able to track the states, but also were able to dig deeper to find out what kinds of illnesses people talked about and even what time of year there appeared to be an uptick in these illnesses. No surprise here: Winter months were mentioned far more often than summer months.
Some of the most referred to illnesses included "flu" and "sick baby." "Stomach flu," "stomach bug" and even "malaria" were also high on the list.
Texas had about 152 illness-related tweets per 100,000 residents (earning it the no. 2 spot in the sickest states list), while Ohio was no. 1 with approximately 163 illness-related tweets per 100,000 residents.
The number of uninsured residents and low immunization rates among children played a part in Texas' high numbers, according to Bay Alarm Medical.
Drilling down even further, the study also shows that Lubbock came in at no. four in its list of the 10 sickest cities in America. That's scary stuff! Earning the top spot on the sickest cities list was New Orleans, Louisiana.
Why the high numbers for Lubbock in particular? While no specific reason was provided, perhaps the high levels of dust and pollen in the air, especially here in the spring when it's very windy, is a factor.
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