Please help us keep music alive by preventing death by lifestyle

After twelve years (est. 1998) of providing comprehensive health services to New Orleans musicians and their families, we at the NOMC have realized that we must do more to prevent death by lifestyle. At the NOMC, the 3 most prevalent diagnoses amongst musicians are: Diabetes, Depression and Hypertension.

We hereby reach out to our musicians to help us do more than just treat the problem. Let’s work together to prevent it in the first place, and change the outcome!

Please, let’s change the staggering impact of diabetes on our culture:

• 7 out of every 100 adults in Louisiana has diabetes, ranking the state 10th highest in the nation for the ratio of people with diabetes in the general population.(Louisiana Health Stats)
• Approximately 42 out of every 100,000 adult deaths in Louisiana are due to diabetes, making LA the #1 state with highest rate of deaths from diabetes. (Louisiana Health Stats)
• In 2005, 269,000 adults in Louisiana were diagnosed with diabetes and by 2007, 10% of the total adult population had been diagnosed with diabetes. Another 1% of Louisianans have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. . (Louisiana Health Stats)
• African Americans comprise nearly 32% of Louisiana’s population, but possess the highest diabetes prevalence rate and highest diabetes death rate. . (Louisiana Health Stats)
• African Americans have the highest prevalence of diabetes, with a 13.7% diagnosis rate, compared to 8.2% of Hispanics and 8.9% of the white population.(Center for Disease Control: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System).

Over the past 12 months we have compiled data, measured our progress, and sent out questionaires to our musicians’ clients and conducted focus groups with them. The result is that we are more determined than ever to PREVENT DEATH BY LIFESTYLE, taking a pro-active approach to keep our music alive.

Please join in and let’s keep our culture alive! For more information: Diabetes.org

Bethany
NOMC&AF President and Co-Founder