Community Health Status Assessment:
Assesses data about health status, quality of life, and risk factors in the community.

                                                                   
General Findings...

Strengths:  
Relatively high levels of:

• Education
• Homeownership
• Employment
• Median family income
• Breadth of occupations
• Adequate housing
• High rates of entry into prenatal care
• Rate of low birth weight births remains low
• Pre-term delivery rates declining
• Satisfaction with care high and improving.
• Breastfeeding rates comparatively high.
• Low rates of pediatric hospitalizations.
• Teen pregnancy continues at on of the lowest rates in the state.   
• Female teens reported lower rates of smoking than in prior survey.
• High rates of immunization among school age children
• Utilization of domestic violence services. 
• Schools developing violence plans.
• Decline in food service related citations.
• Confirmed cases of lead exposure declining.
• Cases of animal rabies and exposed individuals declining.
• Mortality trends are improving.
• Cardiovascular mortality declining.
• Cerebrovascular mortality declining.
• Improved breast cancer screening.
• Lung cancer deaths among women declining.
• Declining nursing home utilization with increasing intensity of case mix.
• High priority care provider ratio.
• Relatively high ratings of HMO provided health plans.  

Trends to Watch:  

• Decline in free lunch participation.
• Decline in food stamp applications.
• Number of grandparents involved as children’s care givers.
• Rates of ADHD diagnosis variable.
• Hospitalizations for pediatric asthma among those under age 5.
• Selected aspects of smoking and alcohol use trending lower.
• STD rates trending higher.  
• Openings in preventive services.
• Rates of drug/chemical dependency diagnoses unchanged.
• Declining rates of alcohol related diagnosis and treatment. 
• West Nile Virus continues to be a concern.
• Diabetes hospitalizations unchanged.
• Increasing numbers of individuals receiving Medicaid.   

Opportunities:  

• Alcohol risk behavior increasing.   
• Reports of drug use uncharged.  
• ADHD diagnoses increasing.
• Immunization rates among toddlers lower than rates among school age children.
• Adult alcohol use increasing.   
• Domestic violence incidents increasing.  
• Relatively high percent of adult smokers [approx. 30%].  
• Mental health diagnoses increasing among adult females.
• Suicides trending upward.
• Absence of fluoridation in over half of villages and some towns.   
• Presence of three toxic waste sites.
• Breast cancer deaths among women increasing.
• Lung cancer deaths among men increasing.
• Adult asthma diagnoses increasing.
• Obesity rates increasing.
• Response time of emergency medical services inconsistent across county.
• Inadequate number of dental providers.  
• Decreases in individuals receiving treatment at OASAS sites.
• Early intervention cases increasing in number and cost.

See the Related Documents below to view the entire report.

Related Documents:

• Community Health Assessment (5816 kb).