Disease Trends in Utah County - Trevor Beckstead

I have always been interested in helping people and since being in this public health class, I have learned there are many ways to do that. I decided to contact a public health nurse/school nurse named Debbie Hall who works for the Utah County Health Department. She gave me a few trends that she has seen.

 1. The first health trend that she has noticed is the increase in obesity. With this increase in obese people, there are many other diseases which have presented themselves. Mainly among those are heart disease and diabetes as well as many others. Because of this increase in obesity and diseases, health costs have gone up as well. Food is a big part of our society and there is too little exercise. A big focus of public health is towards helping people to exercise more and eat healthier.

 2. The second health trend was that there is an increase in people with asthma. There is a few causes of this according to here but the main reason is because of the air quality here in our valley and in Utah in general. Things like the inversion make breathing the air really bad for us and cause many people to show asthmatic symptoms. Some people even show symptoms of asthma here even though not having in anywhere else they have lived. Another factor is smoking which also increased the risk of asthma.

 3. The third health trend is an increase in pertussis in babies under the age of 2. Pertussis or Whooping Cough obtained by adults or older children presents itself with symptoms like a cold. But when the baby or small child catches it, it can cause severe symptoms and maybe even death. Because of this increase in pertussis in babies caused from catching the disease from adults, there has been made and immunization for pertussis for adults or older children, instead of previously when it was produced just for young children and babies.

 4. The fourth trend which is found in Utah County but also all over the US is an increase in STD’s especially Chlamydia. This is because people don’t think about what consequences come from the choices they make concerning STD’s. There are much more interactions in this day and age than in times past. Also, people with multiple partners increase the spread of chlamydia and STD’s.

 5. The last trend which she told me about was one that she saw prevalent in Georgia where her last job was in the health department. She said that it was a real upcoming issue there and that they were trying to prevent it here. This trend was an increase in low birth weight infants. She said that this was due to a few issues which were common among low-income families. The first was no prenatal care, and less-educated pregnant mothers. They didn’t know what nutrition was good for the fetus, and also where to get prenatal care. Another cause for the low birth weight was due to smoking, alcohol consumption, and use of illegal drugs. This was a problem in Georgia and by educating the women here, there can be much less risk for babies born with a low-birth weight.