Health assessments show high rate of stroke deaths, binge drinking

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

Community health needs assessments and rankings are in, and results show Henry County?s strengths as well as areas that need improvement. The assessments and rankings, which were provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, were dissected during the last Healthy Henry County Communities (HHCC) meeting on Tuesday.

Among the areas of concern that the survey revealed included findings that showed Henry County scored worse in the number of stroke deaths than 77 other counties across the nation that are comparable in size and demographics.

?We know from past data that Henry County, and southeast Iowa in general, has a high density of stroke deaths,? said Travis Johnson, Henry County Community Health director. ?We have implemented various programs over the years to combat this, but overall it is still a concern that we are trying to deal with.?

In addition, Henry County showed a rather high rate of adult binge drinking as well as data that indicated a high percentage of people in Henry County have limited access to healthy food.

The survey also showed stressful home situations, which included higher cost of housing, as well as poor air quality, were areas that had moderately negative scores. Henry County also tested higher in rates of death due to coronary heart disease.

?The idea is that by having this data, we can produce an action plan to begin to deal with some of these problem areas,? said Johnson.

Recently, the Henry County Substance Abuse Coalition has seen a fairly major cut in their funding, which severely impacts their ability to promote drug and alcohol abuse prevention programming in the county. With data showing Henry County?s high rate of adult binge drinking, Johnson says program funding for programs like the Coalition are even more vital to the overall health of the community.

?The data gives us a way of verifying that we do indeed need programs like the Henry County Substance Abuse Coalition and the mobile grocery programs in our county,? he said, also referencing Henry County?s need for access to health food. ?When people start asking why we need these types of programs, we have this data to refer back to.?

On a more positive note, Henry County scored very well in areas such as death rates due to diabetes, access to parks and recreational facilities, adequate social supports, life expectancy and poverty rates.

Overall, Henry County does have a larger population of residents between the ages of 5 to 17 than of any other age group, and has a larger number of residents between the ages of 55 and 65 than most other counties in Iowa. These numbers, according to Johnson, do directly impact the specific areas of concern that impact Henry County the most.

A complete report containing results from Henry County?s needs assessment may be obtained by visiting www.cdc.gov/communityhealth.

Other items that the HHCC board covered included:

An approval of board member Willy Amos? resignation

An approval of the changes made to the HHCC bylaws

A review of the financial records for the month of February

The next HHCC board meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 5, at 1 p.m., inside Henry County Health Center?s Health Education Center.