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Region's Health Improves

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 10--It is preliminary, but the 2005 regional health report card seems to show the Green River area's collective health has improved.

It is, though, a conditional improvement, said Chad Gesser, who compiled the annual report for the third year for the Green River Area Development District's Health Council.

"What's satisfactory here might be much worse than what the national rate is," said Gesser, coordinator for institutional research for Owensboro Community and Technical College.

"It's getting better, but it's still bad," he said.

The draft report he presented at Tuesday's council meeting showed the 2002 rate of death from breast cancer was 30.9 per 100,000 people in the region.

That was an improvement over the 2000 rate of 32.8 listed in last year's report card and is lower than the state rate of 31.2 in 2002. But it is higher than the national rate of 25.2, he said.

Still, as one of the nation's unhealthiest states, the Green River area is "not as unhealthy as the other regions," Gesser said.

Nine of the 21 categories looked at are listed as a "serious health concern."

Last year's final report had 17 of 23 areas listed as a serious concern in the seven-county area, which includes Daviess, Ohio, Hancock and McLean.

This year's report, which isn't expected to be finalized until early September, will be the fifth report put out by the council since 1996 and the fourth straight since 2002.

In addition to the breast cancer category, the status for physical activity improved from being a serious concern to "progress made."

Six other categories improved from being a serious concern to "needing attention." They include diabetes, adult cigarette use, obesity, fruit and vegetable intake, infant mortality rate and heart disease.

Categories still listed as a serious concern were low birth-weight babies, unmarried births, youth cigarette and alcohol use, overweight adults, lung cancer, cancer in general, health care coverage and strokes.

The region was first among 15 other area development districts with the fewest people dying of heart disease, according to 2002 data.

"That surprised me, but it's a good thing if that is the case," said council chairwoman Susan Langan with the Kentucky Cancer Program after the meeting.

The region had the second-lowest adult smoking rate (as of 2003), third in age-adjusted death rates from chronic lower respiratory disease (in 2002) and fifth in age-adjusted deaths from all types of cancer (in 2002).

But the Green River area was 14th in the age-adjusted death rates from strokes as of 2002.

The data collected from county, state and federal sources are the latest available, but not all of it has been easy to get, Gesser said.

"We're a lot better than we were five years ago," Langan said. Then, some agencies didn't compile some of the data being used, she said.

This year's report is different in some aspects, Gesser said.

The council decided to note and define "malignant neoplasms" so people will know it includes all types of cancers.

Also, instead of tallying total deaths from cancer, for example, an age-adjusted rate is used, Gesser said.

The weighted measure allows a better comparison between counties where one might have an older population, Gesser said.

The council also decided to include in the report a "map" of activities, such as health fairs, in the seven counties to show what is being done to make communities healthy.

"Our main focus is 'Where do we need improvement?' " Langan said. "We're just looking at ways to help communities."

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Copyright (c) 2005, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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