I talked with Christopher Smoot, Emergency Services & Epidemiology Director at the Wasatch County Health Department in Heber, UT.
1. The first he mentioned was obesity. In Wasatch county, there is an estimate of 23.6% of the adult population being obese. Although this is below the national average, it's still a concern because it can lead to so many chronic health issues. He said that there is a real chance that this number will continue to rise because of the poor nutrition and lack of physical activity that is also prevalent. Those bad habits are especially common in the youth, so they are worried that they will still have those tendencies in adulthood, which is a real problem.
2. Tobacco use was the second health trend Chris mentioned. Although they are concerned about smoking, the real concern in Heber is smokeless tobacco. It's not a commonly seen problem in urban areas, but because Heber is a fairly rural area, it's a real problem. The main reason it's seen as an issue is because it has the potential to cause multiple chronic health issues.
3. The third trend was drug misuse and abuse. This includes both illegal and prescription drugs. He mentioned that prescription drug abuse has become a significant issue, and since 2006 has caused more deaths than car crashes in Utah. I actually remember this being a problem in high school, with a lot of my peers getting high off of cold syrup. Chris said, however, that as awareness has spread, the problem has slowly started to decline.
4. Increased potential for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases was the third problem. According to Chris, the number of families in Utah who have decided to opt out of the recommended vaccines has gone up. This increases the risk that some vaccine-preventable illnesses might come back. The most recent case of this was the latest outbreak of Pertussis in the past couple of months, something that a couple of my own siblings got sick with. He said that outbreaks in vaccine-preventable diseases cause a range of problems in the community, from a decrease in productivity to a tragic increase in fatalities.
5. Binge drinking was the last trend that he mentioned. He said that it is especially a concern among adolescents and young adults. Over the past decade or two, it has become even more prevalent. I remember from my own years at Wasatch High School hearing stories about my peers who had gotten extremely drunk over the weekend. The fear is that this will lead to alcohol dependency in the future, serious car accidents, and an increase in certain chronic diseases.
-Allyson Holmes
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