Obesity among county health concerns
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 25, 2015 1:50 AM
How do you measure your health?
Better still, how does one measure the health of this county?
One way is through collecting data and developing policies and action plans to improve the well-being of the county's citizens, said Ta-Kisha Darden, health education specialist at the Wayne County Health Department.
At the recent Board of Health meeting, she presented the 2014 State of the County Health Report.
The findings, she said, have been in the works since the 2012 community health assessment was done, identifying focus areas for 2013-16.
"Key stakeholders came together and told us what they believed were the main problems in Wayne County," she explained. "We decided how to work on them in the years since."
According to the state rates and survey responses, the county's greatest health concerns are in the areas of obesity, chronic disease (cancer, heart disease and diabetes), sexually transmitted diseases, health literacy, mental health and teen pregnancy prevention.
Cancer and heart disease continue to be the top two leading causes of death in both the county and the state. Wayne County moved slightly above the state average in deaths attributed to heart disease but is in line with the state rate for diabetes.
There is also a disparity among minorities in this category, Ms. Darden said. The report said that minorities die from certain cancers and heart disease at a much higher rate, with the minority death rate for diabetes, kidney diseases and prostate cancer more than double that for whites. Breast and colorectal cancer death rates among minorities also remain higher than for whites.
The county has become very proactive in tackling the issue, with efforts launched by Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Wayne Memorial Hospital and WATCH, or Wayne Action Teams for Community Health, Ms. Darden said. The Health Department also continues to provide free or low-cost chronic disease services for uninsured/underinsured women, targeting heart health, breast and cervical cancer, she said.
Other efforts include a partnership between Wayne County Services on Aging and the Health Department's minority health program for a self-management program to implement Stanford University's Living Healthy with the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.
"Faithful Families" is another collaboration, combining efforts of the minority health office and Cooperative Extension Family and Consumer Science Agent to build on the Eat Smart and Move More program within the African American faith-based organizations. Eight hundred participants have been reached through this program, Ms. Darden said, as well as 30 organizations in the county.
One factor that contributes to some of the chronic diseases is obesity, which Health Director Davin Madden has previously said makes some issues preventable ones.
In Wayne County, 72 percent of adults are overweight and 33 percent are considered obese. For children between the ages of two and four, 27.2 percent are categorized as overweight or obese.
An "Obesity Action Plan" is being implemented to improve some of the quality of life and health outcomes, Ms. Darden said.
"What we're doing to decrease the obesity rate, is provide different educational programs, the farmers market has expanded to include different educational resources," she said, noting that over the next three-year period, community groups will be enlisted to focus more on increased physical activity and healthy eating.
In the area of communicable diseases, the leading category is STDs, or sexually transmitted diseases, with positive results for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV accounting for the most cases. While historically the county has been significantly higher than the state average for chlamydia and gonorrhea, the rates in Wayne County are on the decline, Ms. Darden said.
Teen pregnancy rates have also gone down, in both the state and the county, she said. In 1999-2003, Wayne's pregnancies (ages 15-19) per 1,000 female residents, was 85.4 compared to the state figure of 70.2. For the period of 2004-2008, Wayne's number was 76.5, while the state was at 62.1. In the most recent report, for 2009-2013, the local statistic was 59.9, with the state at 44.9.
For more information on the community health assessment and action plans, visit www.waynegov.com.