Tyler Haslem (Public Health Community Trends)

Utah County Public Health Community Trends

For my Public Health Community Trends assignment, I talked to my uncle, Garth Haslem who works in the field of Public Health.  He is an expert in identifying and treating houses that have been used for cooking methamphetamines.  He operates out of Utah County, which is where I hope to end up working as a physician.  We talked about several disturbing Public Health trends in Utah, but amongst the most interesting were the following:

Methamphetamines:

“This is not your mom’s and dad’s Utah.”  In fact, Utah has had a problem with the number of meth use and meth labs for quite some time.  A few years back, methamphetamines were the second most used drug amongst women, just behind Marijuana.  Obviously, no drug abuse is desirable for a State to have, but meth is particularly insidious, and remains a danger in Utah communities.

Heart Disease:

When asked why he considered Heart Disease to be toward the top of the list, he said “it seems that Heart Disease is a potential consequence of every unhealthy behavior.  Smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle—they all end with heart disease.”  In fact, heart disease is amongst the top dangers in the national realm of Public Health; Utah is simply no different.

Childhood Obesity:

            The number of obese children in Utah is concerning.  This is not exclusive to Utah, but it would seem as though the up and coming generation is set to be considerably more obese than their parents’ generation.  This is also disturbing since Utah has been up there with the healthiest of the states in terms of obesity rates.  Without measures taken to curb the trends of childhood obesity, the current generation of kids could be plagued with obesity-related diseases like diabetes, chronic heart disease, or death.

Air Quality:

            Anyone who has lived in Utah for more than a few years has likely experienced poor air quality at some point, often due to wildfires in the west desserts.  It came as a surprise to me that Utah’s air quality is amongst the worst in the nation in Northern Utah.  This is an obvious problem for those with asthma or other respiratory difficulties.  Combined with high elevation,  many people find Utah a difficult place to breathe.

Suicide:

            This one surprised me!  Utah’s suicide rates have moved up dramatically in the last couple of years, particularly among men ages 25-64.  This issue, of course, is very difficult to approach from a Public Health standpoint as those who are considering suicide are often hard to identify.  Suicide prevention and mental health promotion is key in addressing the suicide issue.