Public Health Trends - Cheyenne Betts

Cheyenne Betts

I did my research on El Paso County which covers mainly Colorado Springs, Colorado. I spoke with Danielle Oller who works with Public Relations at the El Paso County Health Department.

Food Safety

                In El Paso County, the practice of improving food safety has resulted in the decrease of foodborne illnesses in the past few years. Reported cases of these diseases, such as Salmonella and E. coli, have decreased since 2008. However, many of the outbreaks in foodborne illness of the nation have occurred in Colorado. Nationally there were 16 multistate outbreaks in 2011, seven of which were reported in Colorado. Although the number of cases reported has indeed gone down, there were still 31 illness outbreaks reported in Colorado in 2011.   

  

Mental Health and Substance Abuse

                Mental Health is measured based on the behavioral risk factor surveillance system. In the US, 14.1% of adults of 18 years old reported having mental health. Depression can be a form of mental disability. In El Paso County, it has been found that teenagers with depression are more likely to have risky behavior such as binge drinking and high rates of sexual activity as opposed to getting large amounts of physical activity. This depression can lead to feelings of suicide in which males have higher suicide rates across all age groups, while a larger number of females are admitted to the hospital after attempted suicide.  With regards to substance abuse, Colorado and El Paso County residents use significantly more marijuana than the United States Population.

Motor Vehicle Safety

                Motor vehicle injuries resulting in hospitalization have declined from 95.6 per 100,000 in 2000 to 53.7 per 100,000 in 2010. El Paso County has a lower rate of traffic injuries than the average for the state of Colorado. Fatalities due to traffic accidents have decreased from 13.7 to 6.5 fatalities per 100,000. Less than 1% of the reported traffic crashes in 2010 resulted in one or more fatalities. Concurrently with state laws, which have included bans on cell phone use while driving, there has been a 56% decrease in motor vehicle fatalities in El Paso County among teens between the ages of 15 and 19 between.   

Oral Health

Because of the extremely low rates of oral cancer in the county, oral health is measured by access to dental care. In 2011, 35% of El Paso County residents did not have insurance and statistics have shown that when people are uninsured there is less chance that they will visit a dentist. It has been discovered that more females go to the dentist than males and that people will visit the dentist more often from ages 6-17 than any other time of life. A study done concerning third graders revealed that 54.4% of them had treated or untreated cavities and 38.7% had sealants on at least one of their permanent teeth. Also, unfortunately the fluoridation of water in El Paso County has not increased and is much lower than the Colorado average. In Colorado, 70% of people served by public water systems have fluoridated water while in El Paso County only 8.7% of these people have fluoridated water.

Unsafe Sexual Practices and Teen Pregnancy

                In El Paso County, the number of teen pregnancies has been decreasing and is lower than the average of Colorado. Still the age group 15-19 still has the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies and these pregnancies are more prevalent in blacks in Colorado. Although the rate of pregnancies is going down, there is still a problem with sexually transmitted diseases. It was reported that only 6 out of 10 sexually active high school students reported using condoms. Consequently the rate of STIs for all ages in El Paso County has consistently been higher than the state average.