Roseto effect

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The Roseto effect is the phenomenon by which a close-knit community experiences a reduced rate of heart disease. The effect is named for

Italian American community of Roseto compared with other locations.[1][2][3] Many studies followed, including a 50-year study comparing Roseto to nearby Bangor. As the original authors had predicted, as the Roseto cohort shed their Italian social structure and became more Americanized in the years following the initial study, heart disease rates increased, becoming similar to those of neighboring towns.[4]

From 1954 to 1961, Roseto had nearly no heart attacks for the otherwise high-risk group of men 55 to 64, and men over 65 had a death rate of 1% while the national average was 2%. Widowers outnumbered widows, as well.[1]

These statistics were at odds with a number of other factors observed in the community. They smoked unfiltered

stogies, drank wine "with seeming abandon" in lieu of milk and soft drinks, skipped the Mediterranean diet in favor of meatballs and sausages fried in lard with hard and soft cheeses. The men worked in the slate quarries where they contracted illnesses from gases and dust.[5] Roseto also had very little crime, and very few applications for public assistance.[5]

Wolf attributed Rosetans' lower heart disease rate to lower stress. "'The community,' Wolf says, 'was very cohesive. There was no keeping up with the Joneses. Houses were very close together, and everyone lived more or less alike.'" Elders were revered and incorporated into community life. Housewives were respected, and fathers ran the families.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Grossman, Ron; Leroux, Charles (October 11, 1996). "A New 'Roseto Effect': 'People Are Nourished By Other People'". Chicago Tribune. Roseto, Pa. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9781592335213
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  3. PMID 14132548
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  4. PMID 1636828
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  5. ^ a b Positano, Rock (November 23, 2007). "The Mystery of the Rosetan People". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  6. ^ Cassill, Kay (June 16, 1980). "Stress Has Hit Roseto, Pa., Once the Town Heart Disease Passed by". People. 13 (24).
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