The Anne Arundel County Department of Health (DOH) recently released their Report Card of Community Health Indicators. The report offers an overview of the health of over a half million residents of our county.
How healthy are Anne Arundel County residents? There seems to be some good news, but in many areas we lag behind Maryland as a whole:
The good news:
Infant health indicators: The percent of low birth weight infants (those under approximately 5.5 pounds) in the county is better (8.2%) than that of Maryland as a whole (8.8%). The percent of women receiving prenatal care during the first trimester of their pregnancy was 70.4% in the county compared to 56.9% in the state—while the number of teen pregnancies in the county is slightly lower (25.8) compared to the state (27.2). Finally, the number of infants who die during their first year of life is 4.7 per 1,000 live births—compared to 6.7 per 1,000 in the state. However, there are significant differences between the infant mortality rate for white county babies (3.3 per 1,000) compared to black babies (10.9 per 1,000).
The bad news:
Cancer: Anne Arundel county continues to have higher rates of cancer than other parts of the state. Almost 12,000 county residents were diagnosed with some type of cancer between 2004-2008 for a rate of 471.9 per 100,000 population – compared to 434.5 for the state. Breast cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer have the highest incidence in the county. Over 4,600 residents died of cancer during the same period.
Smoking: A little over 15% (15.3%) of county residents smoke – a leading risk factor for lung cancer which is higher in the county than in Maryland overall.
Obesity: Almost 40% of adult residents are overweight (body mass index of 25 to 29.9), while almost 30% are obese (body mass index of 30 or more). Obesity increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other conditions.
The report also provides an overview of the many programs run by the DOH including mental health and addiction programs, cancer screenings, the WIC program (healthy skills and services for families), the REACH program (low cost health insurance for uninsured county residents), and environmental health (addresses unhealthy or unsafe housing conditions).
A copy of the full report is available here:
The DOH is the government agency responsible for public health in Anne Arundel County. Their mission is to preserve, promote and protect the health of all County residents. For more information about DOH and it's programs, go to their website: http://www.aahealth.org/index.php