Natalie Whiting

Public Health Community Trends

            To investigate the public health trends of the Salt Lake City area of Utah, which is where I live, I called my grandfather, Scott S. Parker. He is President Emeritus of Intermountain Healthcare, a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, and currently a professor in the program of Health Care Administration at the University of Utah. Due to his knowledge in the area of public health, I was able to ask him what the top five public health trends were affecting the Salt Lake City Valley area. The trends he identified are as follows:

1.      Communicable Diseases: My grandfather discussed that the greatest concern right now among communicable diseases is the flu which is affecting the most people. The greatest challenge currently is that pharmaceutical companies that do the research about the flu have to find the best combination of antibiotics to fight the flu because each strain is different every year. However, there is always the possibility of them being wrong. The issues facing the community concerning communicable diseases are that of availability, education, and monitoring.

In the last five years, there was a time when the clinics ran out of flu shots. He stated that though it was not a national disaster, it was certainly a wake-up call for those who were responsible.

He also mentioned that people are not particularly educated about communicable diseases and the need to receive flu shots as they should be. He discussed that there needs to be an increase in the current public health initiative which is to convince people about the benefits of flu shots and eliminate any fear in receiving the injection. This can be done through increased television ads, newspaper articles, etc.

The last thing he mentioned concerning communicable diseases was that there needs to be an increased monitoring of ancient communicable diseases. Though they are not an issue now, they could reemerge. Diseases such as measles, whooping cough, and small pox could emerge and travel into a national level issue if not constantly monitored.

2.      Air Pollution: The other issue my grandfather said was affecting the Salt Lake Valley was air pollution. He explained that it is an issue that everyone is involved in and impacted by which makes it a public health issue. The problem has increased over the years and more and more people are getting sick from it. He discussed that the biggest issue is that the state legislature does not want to address this problem and no one is coming up with an initiative to solve the problem anytime soon. He said that currently people are focusing on the economic development of the valley and the state of Utah but he said that even this could be affected by pollution of the air and cause residents to suffer long term health issues despite economic success of the state. There is a lack of priorities in the focus on what is the greater problem for the residents of Salt Lake Valley.

3.      Health Care Access: He stated that there are differing opinions on this subject but that he feels that this is one of the trends that are facing residents of Salt Lake City and Utah as a whole. He explained that due to a lack of funds, insurance, or employment, there is an increase of people going to the Emergency Department for health care rather than going to clinics or doctor offices. This causes people to go to the worst place for care in terms of expense. This could be prevented if people were better educated regarding health care and increase the accessibility to primary care. If they were able to go to primary health care physicians or community clinics, they could go there for help instead of going to the emergency department.

4.      Automobile Safety: My grandfather mentioned that this is a constant trending issue in public health that is continuously increasing as a problem in the last decade due to technological advances. Despite advances in the actual safety of automobiles, technology as increased the carelessness of the drivers themselves. The problem with automobile safety has been compounded because of cell phones from both talking and texting on them. The increase of talking and texting with cell phones has caused people to be even more careless in driving distracted, having their minds completely somewhere else, and not focused on driving.  He said that though there are advertisements concerning the issue, he believes there should be an even greater increase about this concern to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving.

5.      Substance Abuse (drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc.): My grandfather discussed with me that this public health trend is pervasive and is a continuous and constant worry in the Salt Lake City area. He explained that this is a recurring trend because each generation is replaced by the next.  He stated that with each new generation, the cycle of being thrown into the substance abuse scene, whether by choice or pressure, restarts. He stated that the public health community in the area has been doing very well lately with educating people through volunteers, newspaper, and television in fighting substance abuse. He said examples of this are the campaigns against meth addiction. However, he reiterated that aggressive public health education is always needed against substance abuse to combat this dangerous trend.