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Purpose of Study:
Healthy communities prevent health problems before they start. Health communities protect their entire populations from risks such as unsafe tap water, unsafe restaurant food and infectious disease. Health communities give people the information they need to choose healthy behaviors, such as resisting tobacco and buckling up.
The 1997 Regional Health Assessment can give the communities within Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Wahkiakum Counties, and the approximately 200,000 people living within those communities, the ability to make information-based decisions about health needs. This information, in conjunction with the five individual County Health Status Reports, will help identify the best strategies and resources to meet the needs of the community. It can help measure the effectiveness of the strategies after they are implemented by providing a baseline from where interventions started.
Summary of Study Results:
The Regional Health Assessment is organized into the following categories:
- Demographics
- The total population is increasing. In 1995, the Partnership region had 202,643 people residing in 6,525 square miles.
- People over the age 65 is one of the fastest growing segments of the population, making the median age of the entire region near 40 years.
- There are growing numbers of non-white people, whose median age is near 24 years, considerably younger than the population as a whole.
- The educational level of the population is lower than the state average.
- Poverty rates are increasing, particularly for children.
- Rates of home ownership are somewhat higher than for the state as a whole.
- Health Systems
- The percentage of the population without health insurance is increasing.
- There is a shortage of primary care providers, leading to a concern for access to health care.
- Environment
- Food-borne illness outbreaks appear to be decreasing.
- More people are dependent on on-site disposal than municipal handling of sewage in the Partnership than the state as a whole.
- More people are dependent on individual wells than public water systems for drinking water.
- Intensive efforts to find and correct pollution sources has led to allowing more harvest of shellfish.
- Improper disposal of solid and hazardous waste is of great concern.
- Social Health
- Arrests of both juveniles and adults for property and violent crime is increasing.
- Domestic violence arrests have generally increased between 1990 and 1994.
- Referrals to Child Protective Services has increased between 1990 and 1994.
- Arrests for alcohol-related crimes is decreasing while arrests for drug-related crimes is increasing for both juveniles and adults.
- Infectious Diseases
- The rates of reported vaccine-preventable diseases is similar to the state as a whole.
- Reported hepatitis A rates are similar to the state, while reported hepatitis B rates are considerably higher than the state as a whole.
- Reported intestinal disease rates are similar to the state as a whole.
- Because of recent rabies deaths, there is a growing concern about contact with potentially rabid animals.
- Injuries
- Unintentional injury hospitalizations and deaths are consistently, and significantly higher in the Partnership than the state as a whole.
- Motor vehicle injury hospitalizations and deaths are declining, but at a much slower rate in the Partnership than the state as a whole.
- Death from falls has increased in the Partnership between 1986 and 1995.
- Death from suicide has increased dramatically between 1980 and 1995.
- Death from firearms is increasing at a faster rate in the Partnership than the state.
- Maternal and Infant Health
- The birth rate is falling.
- Women in the Partnership area give birth earlier (before age 30) and have more children than women in the state.
- Most women (83%) get prenatal care within the first three months of pregnancy.
- About 30% of women smoke during their pregnancy, significantly more than the state average.
- Infant mortality is falling dramatically.
- Non-Infectious Disease
- Cancer is the leading cause of death, followed by heart disease, injury, diabetes and stroke.
- Death rates from heart disease have declined steadily since 1980.
- Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among both men and women.
- Breast cancer deaths are increasing in the Partnership.
- Death from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease has increased dramatically since 1980.
- The Partnership region has the highest diabetes hospitalization rates in Washington State.
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