Wood County Health Commissioner Pamela Butler was asked what concerned her most about county residents' health as gauged in a new survey, and she didn't hesitate: "Obesity!"
Seventy percent of adults in the county are overweight, and 30 percent fall into the category of obese.
"When you think of obesity, you think of all the other things it can cause," Ms. Butler said. "If we can attack obesity, maybe we can attack diabetes, cardiovascular issues like heart disease and stroke, and even certain cancers have a higher risk by being too overweight."
Despite her alarm, the statistics revealed in a countywide health assessment released yesterday did not surprise the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, which conducted the survey and others just like it in 11 nearby counties.
"Wood is consistent with all of the northwest Ohio counties," said Britney Ward, assistant director of health planning for the agency. "Northwest Ohio is fatter than the rest of the state."
The study, which will be used for public health planning and grant applications, was based on surveys completed by 503 adults aged 19 and older and 492 adolescents in sixth through 12th grades. Because it used questions modeled after those used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health officials can compare Wood County to state and national statistics.
When it comes to weight, CDC figures from 2006 put Ohio's rate of obesity at 28 percent, while nationwide the figure was 25 percent. Ms. Butler said Wood County's 30 percent rate is a wake-up call.
"If I was to pick something that we could have a major impact on besides tobacco ... it would definitely be figuring out how to get people to lower their weight," Ms. Butler said. "We'd have healthier people. We'd have healthier kids. We'd be impacting so many other diseases."
Dr. Ted Boulis, vice president of the Wood County Board of Health, agreed obesity is an area where public health can intervene.
"I think that's one thing we're going to have to concentrate on," he said.
Ms. Ward said that while Wood County's obesity rate was typical of other northwest Ohio counties, many of the other areas surveyed showed striking differences.
A surprising 17 percent of adults in Wood County had been diagnosed with asthma compared to 14 percent statewide and between 9 percent and 17 percent in other northwest Ohio counties.
"Sometimes it's because you have strong advocates for asthma among physicians and they're diagnosing it more, or it could be environmental factors," Ms. Ward said.
Adults in Wood County reported a relatively low rate of diabetes.
"They were the lowest of all the northwest Ohio counties. That was a positive," Ms. Ward said. "Some counties are as high as 16, 17 percent. Wood was at 7 percent."
Both youths and adults in Wood County were not exercising as much as people do in other counties, she said, although eating habits and time spent watching TV, playing video games, and sitting in front of the computer was consistent.
"One thing I found shocking is everyone talks about Bowling Green and Wood County having high suicide rates and so many youth suicides, but when we asked have you attempted suicide, the numbers were actually low compared to other northwest Ohio counties," Ms. Ward said.
Nine percent of youths said they had seriously considered attempting suicide and 4 percent said they had attempted suicide. Ms. Ward said regionally, 9 percent to 19 percent of youths say they've considered attempting suicide.
Dr. Boulis said those figures surprised him as did the data on youth sexual behavior.
While 31 percent of youths said they have had sex -- considerably lower than Ohio's rate of 48 percent -- of those who said they have sex and use birth control, 16 percent said they relied on "withdrawal" as a birth control method.
"It surprises me teenagers consider withdrawal to be a form of birth control," Dr. Boulis said. "That is erroneous."
Wood County residents reported having relatively good access to health care. Some 92 percent of adults said they had health-care coverage.
Like other counties in northwest Ohio, Wood County residents had higher than state and national rates for high blood pressure, but lower than average rates of high cholesterol.
Ms. Butler said the information contained in the health assessment largely will be used to determine where the county health department should focus its limited resources.
Groups will work to identify the top five areas of concern for adults and adolescents and then determine what types of programming could best respond to those needs. Ms. Butler said the health department hopes to repeat the survey in three years to gauge whether those efforts made an impact.
Ms. Ward said much of the information revealed in the adolescent survey can be used by agencies and schools to determine what types of educational programming should be presented to what grades. She found that youth who engage in risky behaviors -- smoking, drinking, sex, and drugs -- were likely to do those things to excess.
"Kids are not starting to smoke or drink in high school. They're starting at 13 or 14, so we need to be doing programming in fourth or fifth grades" before they start, she said.
The health survey cost approximately $32,000 and was paid for with funds from the health department, Wood County Hospital, and United Way.
The complete report may be viewed online at www.toledoblade.com or at www.co.wood.oh.us/HealthDepartment.
Contact Jennifer Feehan at:
jfeehan@theblade.com
or 419-353-5972. To see more of The Blade, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.toledoblade.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008 The Blade, Toledo, Ohio