Douglas Mackay Health Trends

Douglas Mackay, Health Trends

                I talk to Dr. William Pevsner, MD, MPH.  He has recently had a career change from working for the L.A. County Department of Public Health to opening a private practice.  I had the opportunity to talk to him about some of the noteworthy health trends happening in Los Angeles County.  They are as followed.

Obesity:

            Dr. Pevsner said that L.A County is extremely concerned with Obesity.  And despite there “war” on it, obesity is still on the rise.  Obesity has risen to 23.6% of L.A. county population (estimated 1,616,000 people) as of 2011 and another 37% (estimated 2,537,000 people) of the population is overweight.  They are targeting men more than women because while in LA County women are slightly more likely to be obese men are much more likely to be overweight.  LA is doing a lot of advocacy work to fight obesity using “My plate” and is doing a campaign focusing on getting adequate exercise.  These campaigns are targeting middle aged population where obesity is most prevalent.

Alzheimer’s:

            Alzheimer’s is an emerging public health problem that LA County has been trying to tackle.  LA estimates that 10% of all people over 65 and 50% of all people over 85 are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  Alzheimer’s is one of the leading causes of death in LA County (in the top ten).  LA County is getting the word out about risk factors that can help lead to Alzheimer’s.  Some of these risk factors include, repeated head injury, inactivity, and lower educational attainment.  One major thin LA is working on is letting people know these risk factors to reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer’s.

West Nile Virus:

            Since the huge outbreak in 2008 of 120 new cases reported LA County has been tracking and working to prevent any more cases of West Nile Virus.  As Dr. Pevsner said “We thought we were really getting on top of it due to only 4 new cases in 2010, but we were wrong.”  Last year in 2011 63 new cases of West Nile Virus were reported.  Dr. Pevsner said that more effort is being geared back towards the prevention of this disease.  The county is using teams of epidemiologist to track it and find sites of infected birds and squirrels that are caring the disease.

Depression

            Depression is the next one that Dr. Pevsner told me about.  Depression has nearly doubled in the past ten years.  More and more people are being diagnosed with clinical depression.  Dr. Pevsner said that the Department is struggling with this issue.  He said that clinicians are doing very well with the treatment of Depression preventing depression has been a tougher challenge.  It is estimated that over one million people are clinical depressed in LA County.

Influenza Immunizations vs Diagnosed Cases

            Interesting Dr. Pevsner said that while more people than ever are getting Flu vaccinations in LA Country, every year more people contract Influenza.  When he told me this, I found it simple fascinating.  I did a little research and it is true.  More people are getting immunized each year but at the same time more people are getting sick.  He told me that Department had been in the early planning stages to confront this issue when he left but that he knew that Influenza was getting more violent.  People are having more severe symptoms and it is becoming more contagious.  It is becoming a growing health concern in LA County. 

          Other Resources 

                        LA Department of Public Health, Reports http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/statrpt.htm