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Study finds smoking, drinking ups, downs
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - April 25, 2012)
Study finds smoking, drinking ups, downs
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Geauga County residents tend to smoke less than people elsewhere, but they tend to drink a little more.
Those tidbits of information and much more can be found in an approximately 170-page report, "2011 Geauga County Health Assessment."
The report, sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthy Geauga, was released last week to show a "snapshot in time" of the health of the county.
Officials representing schools, health and social service agencies and the juvenile court were among those who sat down last week to review the findings gathered through the use of random surveys and polls in high school classrooms.
The survey looked at adults, children in three ages groups and a sampling of students at the Kent State University Geauga Branch.
Geauga County Health Commissioner Robert Weisdack said the information will give officials a good idea of the direction the county needs to take to improve the health of its residents. He said the data also may be used to secure additional funding for the county.
Britney Ward, of the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, a nonprofit organization which represents 23 hospitals, presented an overall view of the information.
She said surveys today tend to raise people's suspicions, as was shown through problems with the U.S. Census. "It's a different state of mind than when we started this," she said. "People are not trusting."
But she said there was a 97 percent response in Geauga County, which she termed "excellent."
In determining Geauga's fitness, Ms. Ward said, officials had to assume there is a certain percentage of the population that will underreport when asked about weight. She said teenage girls tend to know to the tenth of a pound their weight but not necessarily their height, while boys tend to know their height but not their weight.
Asked to gauge their overall health., two-thirds of the adults rated theirs as excellent or good. Six percent of them described their weight as fair or poor, and that increased to 14 percent for those with incomes below $25,000 annually.
The study found about 20 percent of adults to be obese, while that increased to 28 percent for the lower-income residents.
According to the findings, about 12 percent of the adult population does not have health-care coverage. Most likely to be uninsured are adults under the age of 30 and those with incomes below $25,000.
An estimated 7.6 percent of the Geauga County population lives below the poverty level.
Heart disease and strokes accounted for 31 percent of all adult deaths in the county between 2006 and 2008. Cancer remains the leading cause of death, with 1,586 dying from the disease from 2000 through 2008. The top three cancers are skin, breast and prostate. When age differences were accounted for, Geauga County had a lower cancer mortality rate than Ohio and the nation. The percentage of Geauga County males who died from cancer is lower than the percentage of Geauga County females who succumbed to the disease.
One in seven Geauga County adults, 14 percent, reported being current smokers, compared to 23 percent for Ohio and 17 percent for the United States.
In 2011, 65 percent of Geauga County adults surveyed said they had at least one alcoholic drink per week, increasing to 71 percent for those between the ages of 30 and 64. A 2010 report showed current drinking rates of 53 percent for Ohio and 55 percent for the United States.
Twenty-one percent of the adults in the county were considered frequent drinkers, consuming on an average of three or more days per week. Of those surveyed, 3 percent reported drinking and driving, and the same percentage reported giving alcohol to their children. Two percent reported drinking and driving with children.
Geauga County's rate for fatal motor vehicle accidents per 100,000 population was lower than the state and nation. In Geauga County, from 2006 to 2008, 23 males and six females died from injuries sustained in motor-vehicle accidents.
Among environmental-health issues, Geauga County residents rated concerns about insects and mold highest, followed by rodents, plumbing problems, temperature regulation and unsafe water supplies. Insects were cited by 13 percent, followed by mold at 7 percent and rodents at 6 percent.
The study found that 45 percent of Geauga County adults keep firearms in or around their homes. Of those responding, 4 percent said they keep their firearms unlocked and loaded.
Ms. Ward said it's important to bear in mind that the percentages represent real numbers. Even 1 percent of the population represents 900 individuals among Geauga County's approximately 90,000 residents, she said.
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