Public Health Trends in Boise

Public Health Trends in Boise, Idaho

Corianne Christensen

I spoke with Mark Murray who works as a Public Health Official for the Treasure Valley area in Idaho. He did a recent study different health trends this community sees.

1.    1.  Diabetes: One disease the Mark mentioned to me was diabetes. The percentage of people with diabetes has gone increasingly higher since 2003 to now. It is estimated that 8.0% of Idahoans have diagnosed diabetes. Some factors of the increase might be less college graduates, lower household incomes, and the diagnosis of elderly people. One thing that they are working on is helping those in the conditions above.

2.      2 .Obesity: Another health trend that Mark talked to me about was the lack of physical activity in our area causing an increase in obesity. He did mention that Idaho’s statistics were better than the nation’s but were going up steadily. A couple of issues he mentioned were the general lack of motivation to be physically active, more fast food restaurants, and he also mentioned that 34.9% of Hispanics were not physically active vs. 18.8% of non-Hispanics aren’t. He talked about just promoting healthy eating, being active and educated to help prevent obesity.

3.      3. Cigarette Smoking: 15.7% of Idaho adults are current smokers. Mark said that that number has decreased significantly since 2003 and that is due from campaigns for prevention. Some factors include younger age groups smoking, being unemployed, uneducated, and lower income households. Mark was pleased with the decrease from 2003, but wants to see the numbers go lower. It is easier to prevent younger kids to stay away from it than to wean adults off of smoking.

4.      4. Seat Belt Safety: A fourth issue that Mark mentioned was the lack seat belt use. Adults in Idaho were asked how often they wore seat belts and 23.9% of them said that they usually did not wear their seat belt. The studies show that these numbers might be related to men and younger children not being cautious enough. They also can relate back to those who are less educated and come from a lower income household. Wearing seat belts help prevent death, Mark and his team are hoping to promote in order to prevent.

5.    5.   Binge Drinking: In Idaho 13.2% of adults are binge drinkers. For women it is considered binge drinking to have four alcoholic beverages in one occasion in the last 30 days and for men it is five. Mark was concerned with this stat, which has been fairly consistent since 2003. Similar to the previous trends younger age groups are a factor for this trend as well as males and the unemployed. Prevention is the best for this trend.