How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Three years after the first Lake County Community Health Needs Assessment was issued, a new assessment has been released as local officials seek to better understand and address the county's unique health needs.
The original assessment created a baseline for tracking health needs and creating health policy, and this latest report builds on that effort, offering an additional component of tracking trends, according to Dr. Karen Tait, Lake County's public health officer.
The 2010 assessment also was the basis for the “Climb to the Peak of Health” effort Tait's agency created to encourage community members to take small steps toward improving their own health.
The newest assessment identifies both challenges and opportunities, from high poverty and above-average smoking rates to signs of low occurrences of some diseases, including AIDS.
The Lake County Collaborative of Health behind the report includes a number of organizations and agencies – St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, Sutter Lakeside Hospital, Lake County Health Services, Lake Family Resource Center, First 5 of Lake County, Lake County Tribal Health Consortium, Health Leadership Network, Lake County Behavioral Health, Veteran’s Affairs, Mendocino Community Health Clinic Inc. and Area Agency on Aging, Lake and Mendocino Counties.
The new 180-page assessment, like its earlier counterpart, was completed by Barbara Aved Associates, which oversaw focus groups, as well as paper and online surveys, 994 of which were completed.
The report draws on a number of data sources – including state county health profiles, according to Tait.
It includes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, selected health status indicators, health resource availability and utilization, a summary of related assessments, local perspectives and conclusions and recommended priorities.
“I don't think there are big surprises to it,” said Tait.
When it comes to health matters, Tait said rapid change isn't to be expected. “Population changes take years to become manifest.”
Among the major health issues identified are that Lake County residents are more likely than other Californians to have higher rates of drug use, including prescription drugs, as well as higher rates of obesity and coronary heart disease. Teen pregnancy rates also are higher than the state average.
County health statistics also show residents have high rates of death from lung cancer, and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.
Tait said the report is age-adjusted to account for Lake County's large senior population; the county's population of residents over age 65 is nearly double the proportion of seniors in California as a whole. She added the large senior pool “doesn't explain away our statistics altogether.”
The encouraging signs in the report include lower-than-state-average AIDS incidence rates and diabetes-related deaths, and better access to dental services for the county's children.
The collaborative said the focus group participants and the residents who completed the community health surveys showed an understanding that choosing exercise, eating fresh produce and not smoking were the top three health habits that contribute to maintaining personal health.
The report also found that Lake County is becoming increasingly diverse, and that about 34 percent of children – one-third higher than the state average – and 9.3 percent of seniors, close to 8,000 individuals, live below the poverty level, while 33 percent of low-income adults report not being “food secure.”
The assessment's recommended priorities include promotion and support of healthy choices/healthy behaviors; promotion and support of emotional and mental well being; prevention and treatment of use/misuse of legal and illegal substances, including prescription drugs and medications.
While the county's smoking rates are high, Tait noted that there was an improvement in the rate, which dropped from a quarter of the population to a fifth. There's a concern, however, that more younger people are starting to smoke.
“That's really where we need to put our effort, to prevent that early use of tobacco,” she said, adding that there is a concern that e-cigarettes aren't reducing smoking rates but are hooking young people early. “We could lose all those gains.”
In terms of how those reduced smoking rates impact cancer rates, Tait said that might not show up for 20 years.
“I think we're just building the trends at this point,” she said. “Two points on a graph doesn't always tell the story, but you need those point.”
One of the notable points of the assessment process was that Tait said focus group leaders were particularly touched by the stress factors that people shared that they experience.
“It was present last time but it was more pronounced this time,” she said.
She said it's appropriate for people to be anxious about real life problems, but the assessment process caused officials to see the toll that anxiety was taking on local residents.
Social and economic distress impacts health, with Tait pointing out that it's hard to make good decisions when people can't envision a future for themselves. She said that's why dealing with the psychological aspects of health is important.
Tait said chronic disease prevention is a new priority in public health. “We're just now really turning our attention to it,” she said, adding, “Our eyes are being opened and it's a good thing, we just need to keep it in context.”
Health ultimately boils down to personal health choices, and Tait said health officials don't want county residents to be discouraged by the assessment's findings.
Even if the county ranks poorly, it doesn't mean numbers haven't improved, it just means they haven't improved as much as local officials and residents might hope. “Any improvement is improvement, and we just have to persevere,” Tait said.
She hopes to see another assessment completed in three years.
“This is reinforcing our current priorities,” she said.
Tait encouraged county residents to make a commitment to do one thing every day to improve their health.
“Take a walk, eat an apple, cut down on smoking or quit, volunteer, talk to your doctor about preventive screenings. Even small steps yield big rewards,” she said.
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