The Pros And Cons Of Polk County

Another strategy would involve utilizing data from existing public sources to assess the health and safety needs of the people of Utah County. The main elements of the collected data would involve the identification of the key health indicators and the corresponding risk factors. I would also collect information related to the impact of the social, economic and the environment on the health status of Utah inhabitants. The key sources of data for the assessment of needs of Utah populations would include US census bureau, healthy people 2020, environment public health tracking program, department of mental health and substance abuse and Utah hospital discharge database. Other sources of information for the need assessment would include the indicator based information system indicator for the public health department and Utah’s healthcare access survey (Niederdeppe, Bu, Borah, Kindig & Robert, 2008). I

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on health disparities seen within DeKalb County. The residents of DeKalb County are diverse in race, ethnicity, and income. Since the county is so diverse there are many health disparities seen amongst its residents. Health disparities occur within a county when one group of a population has noticeably better or worse health than another group within the same population. These groups of people can differ by income, education, sex, race, location, and even sexual orientation. This Paper will discuss the health disparities that exist within DeKalb County, and explain why these disparities exist from a historical, political and social aspect. Furthermore, this paper will give background information on health outcomes from national, state, and local epidemiological perspective in order to support the claims that disparities actually exist within this county.

A community’s health can be established through a myriad of differing factors. Three specific factors that will help to determine the health of the county in which I live are community safety, disaster preparedness, as well as an analysis of the population. The community under review, Merced, is located in central California and made up of seventeen cities and communities whose individual populations do not exceed more than 75,000 and covers an area of approximately 1,972 square miles (United States Census Bureau, 2010) with a total population of approximately 255,793 people in 2010 (Merced County California, 2012).

I chose this population due to the large numbers, the poverty level, and the risk for obesity. Statistically, the Hispanic/Latino school aged population rated one of the lowest populations to be physically fit. They also ranked lower on fruit and vegetable consumption. Hispanic/Latinos also have a very low prevalence of higher education compared to the other races and ethnicities. They also rank highest in languages other than English spoken at home ("Healthy Kern County:: Better health through community," 2015). If there is a high adult obesity problem, children are at risk because they are at the mercy of the adult food choices and activity examples they set, because it is usually the adults purchasing the food in the home. Contributing factors to the risk for overweight or obesity, the low fruit and vegetable intake, and the low activity can be attributed to cultural norms, language barriers, and lack of money to buy healthier options. Other factors include unsafe neighborhoods and lack of activity outside of school and ease of purchasing less healthy foods. The change in the education system over the years has led to decreased activity time. Attention to test scores has taken precedence over teaching about health (Espinosa-Hall et al., 2007). Also, in Kern County, the climate is a contributing factor to outdoor activities, with temperatures in the high 90’s and over 100 degrees during the summer ("Bakersfield,

As time goes by, behaviors and habits alter in society. Along with modern technology such as, smart phones, television and computers are not allowing people to live a healthy lifestyle. It is important to focus on the social, behavioral and environmental factors that contributes to health issues. One health issue that impacts Fresno is obesity, a disorder involving excessive body fat. It is estimated that obesity is responsible for “nearly one of every 10 American deaths, and drain our society of $223 billion a year.” (“Obesity in America,” 2012) In effect, obesity can cause chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force encourages rigorous behavioral dietary counseling interventions for adults with hyperlipidemia and other known cardiovascular and diet-related chronic disease such as diabetes (Healthy People.gov, 2011). Creating nutritional and physical activity worksite programs assist in the Healthy People 2020 objective to reduce the incidence of obesity. Another strategy to decrease the occurrence of obesity is to educate families on the importance of reducing the amount of time spent watching TV, movies, playing video games, or searching the Internet. To support families, alternative physical activities should be recommended and available for families. In an effort to fight obesity, Kent county needs increased public awareness of healthier food choices, availability of local fresh fruit and vegetables, and engaging in regular cardiovascular or strengthening exercise. This can be accomplished by a health fair sponsored by Bayhealth Medical Center, partnering with local farms, such as Fifer Farms, local fitness centers, and the YMCA.

Majority of the community in Stockton lacked health insurance prior to Obama Care going into effect in 2014. Even though low-income families are now able to receive insurance at affordable costs or no cost at all, there are many health challenges within the community. Physical inactivity and unhealthy eating habits have led to obesity and multiple chronic diseases. According to the San Joaquin County Community Health Assessment Collaborative report (SJC2HAC) “diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and hypertension were consistently mentioned in the qualitative data as priority health concerns for the residents in the Communities for Concern” (SJC2HAC, pg.23, 2011). Five out of the ten communities for concern were Stockton zip codes. Unhealthy eating habits can be blamed due to the community of Stockton not having healthy retail outlets or access to fresh fruit/ farmers markets. Another reason why eating healthier is a challenge in this community is that fresh and healthy food is more costly. With households not making enough income, it is more convenient to grab fast food that is cheaper. “One of the largest barriers to engagement in physical activity is access to a recreational area” (SJC2HAC, pg.36, 2011). Some of Stockton’s rural areas may not have parks that are near by which can make it harder

Polk was relatively unknown to most Americans, which became his strongest characteristic during the campaign. In a time where both parties had negative views associated with them, Polk was able to differentiate himself enough from the negative and use the positive to his advantage. Polk had a leg up on Clay’s campaign because he was so unexpected. The Whigs had anticipated Van Buren, who had many negative aspects they planned on attacking, but they were given a surprise candidate that they had to compete with on the issues instead of reputation. Polk and Clay had very different looking supporters. Polk's supporters were working, common men, and Clay’s supporters were the elites, wealthy businessmen. A circular from the Democratic Association of Washington DC described the opposing groups. The Whigs “[appeared] to have at command an abundance of money, believed to be derived from men who seek office like

This overwhelming statistic contributes to the 17% of children that have obesity in the United States. More specifically in Texas, 19.1% of children are considered obese. Furthermore, Texas is tied for the rank of 11 for the highest obesity rates among the United States. Looking at the Brazos County every one in seven person is obese. This statistic accounts for the one half of the population is overweight or obese. In lower-income areas such as parts of the Brazos Valley, obesity rates tend to be higher compared to higher income areas. reveal to have higher obesity rates. This is because majority of low-income families have less access to healthy food and opportunity for physical activity. Lower income neighborhoods offer a higher accessibility to unhealthy food sources. In a study done on low-income areas of Los Angeles, it was shown that a greater number of fast-food restaurants congregate the low income areas of Los Angeles compared to the higher income areas of Los Angeles (Hilmers, et al., 2015). Results for similar studies done on the amount of convenience stores in certain areas show that “Low-income zip codes have 30% more conveniences stores” compared to middle-income zip codes (Hilmers, et al., 2015). Convenience stores tend to carry large amounts of snack food, a variety of beverages, and little produce. Low-income areas also reveal that the portion of recreational facilities in

Today we have a much greater understanding than any time before on what if affecting our health that has led to an alarming rate of chronic conditions, including heart disease, obesity, asthma, depression, and diabetes. These are directly linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, and land-use patterns, including access to transportation, urban design, and housing characteristics that can make an impact on people’s ability to participate in physical activity. The land-use pattern that has plagued the United States and Florida since the end of World War II has been suburban sprawl that has led to auto-dependence, air pollution, and a much higher risk of respiratory disease. However, we have the ability to combat these tragedies by shaping

A basic overall assessment of Pasco county health concludes that the county is a moderately healthy community with chronic illness being a major issue. When comparing Pasco County In the area of Health outcome to the 67 other counties in Florida Pasco places 45th. The higher the score the worse the county is. (County Health, 2013) There are two categories that the rankings were broken into were health outcomes and health factors. Health outcome refers to mortality and morbidity. Health factors pertain to health risks including factors like alcohol use, access to care and education. With Health factors Pasco ranked 28th. The rankings vary by a large margin and lead to the conclusion that the county has relatively healthy.

Out of the total 115 counties, Jackson County ranks at 69 in health factors. The first category, health behaviors, relates to behaviors people within the population participate in. These health behaviors include activities like tobacco use, alcohol and drug use, diet, exercise, and sexual activity. The overall ranking for Jackson County is 56 out of 115 counties. The next category, clinical care, relates to the accessibility to quality health care. Accessibility can be determined by examining the amount of providers in the county in comparison to the population. Quality care is measured based on quality outcomes and level of preventive health care. Jackson County ranks high in critical care at 18 of 115 counties. The next category, social and

As previously determined, multiple risk factors contribute to a person developing cardiovascular disease. For further discussion, obesity will be the primary risk factor discussed due to the high obesity rate in the county I currently reside in. Guernsey County, Ohio, boasts an alarming high rate of residents who lack sufficient physical activity at 83.3%. This is an alarming finding but one that arguably contributes to the obesity rate of Guernsey County’s population at 30.2% which is just above the national percentage of 28.1% in America (city-data.com, 2014).

Obesity is a growing disease within our ever quickening, largely sedentary society. The American Obesity Treatment Organization reported the current obesity problem in the US as 72 million people dealing with this disease and associated risk factors. Obesity is a disease that affects both adults and children. The CDC lists related risk factors of this disease as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, Type-2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and stroke ("Adult Obesity Facts"). Obesity is highly prevalent in Florida with rates as high as 25-30% (“Obesity Prevalence Maps”). As a nation, the goal set by Healthy People 2020 is to reduce the rate of obesity to less than 15% and as the data and statistics clearly show Florida is nowhere

Abstract The following is an assessment of an Eastern Washington Community known as Chelan/Douglas Counties which will lead to a community diagnosis. This community diagnosis is based on publicly available statistical data gathered using the concepts of epidemiology of birth rates and leading causes of death and assessing the communities determinants of health from the websites of the Chelan/Douglas County Department of Health, the Washington State Department of Health, the World Health Organization, the Federal Centers for