As a way to address a requirement by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, Cape Girardeau's two major hospitals teamed up with other health care entities to assess health issues facing Southeast Missouri and identify ways to improve the health of the region.

First, it's encouraging to see the competitive hospitals working collaboratively on this. The law requires not-for-profit hospitals to complete a community health needs assessment every three years, and working together saved both hospitals money. Eight community focus groups from several area health and public sectors provided input, and more than 600 people completed surveys overall, including 118 in Cape Girardeau County.

Some of the data provided were perhaps not surprising, but they were sobering. We do not live in a healthy region of the country.

Twenty-eight percent of Cape Girardeau County residents were rated as physically inactive, 18 percent smoked cigarettes and 72 percent ate fewer than five fruit and vegetable servings per day.

Saint Francis and Southeast Hospital said they will work together to implement strategies to address the community's health needs, within their resources and area of expertise. There are some things the hospitals can do to bring about awareness and solutions to health issues. But a lot of it, at least in terms of obesity rates, cigarette use and physical activity, comes down to personal choice and responsibility.

That doesn't mean everyone needs to become vegetarians and run marathons, but most of us can find ways to make more healthy decisions on a daily basis. If enough people do that, everyone benefits in the long run.