Health Epidemiology and Statistics - Coursework Example

Health Epidemiology and Statistics College: Health Epidemiology and Statistics Introduction In Texas, Houston is the most populous city with about 2.16 million citizens, making it the fourth largest city in the US. Houston holds a diverse population with people from different races. The city comprises of about 38% Whites, 38% Hispanic, and 18% Black Americans and 6% Asians. The city is located with an area of about 656.3 square miles, with about 22.3 square miles occupied by water (Outreach Strategists, 2012). Houston is found within the subtropical climate, hence experience hot summers and mild winters. Favourable climate is one the factors that has resulted to inflow of people from the whole of US, contributing to the increase in population in this city. On demographics, Houston is a multicultural city with over 90 languages spoken on the land. The country has a population density of 3, 371 people per square mile, which is relatively higher than any other cities in the US. The 2012 census estimated that the average income of the people is about $40, 000 for families, just slightly higher than income per household. The poverty level benchmarks point out that over 16% of families and 19% of the citizens live below the poverty line. The country has a gross domestic product of $489, which is the fourth largest in the US, hence considered as one of the best economy in the world (Outreach Strategists, 2012). In Houston, there exists evidence of health disparities within the city, majorly affecting the minority groups in the city. The Hispanic or Latino group comprise of the highest percentage of citizens with the challenge of accessing proper health care. In 2008, the Houston maternal mortality rate stood at 17.3 per 100, 000 live births, and the infant mortality rate was at 6.2 per 1000 live births (Solitare et al., 2012). Although the mortality rate is considerably low in Texas, it is evident that over the Minority groups contribute largely to the number of deaths. For instance, the Blacks have a mortality rate of about 10.2 deaths per 1000 live births. On this ground, there exist huge health disparities among the various races that co-exist in this city. Among major killer diseases in the city includes the heart diseases, cancer, stroke, Diabetes, which may be considered as lifestyle diseases that may be linked to the lifestyle behaviour of the people. From a close examination, there exists a relationship between the high death rates of the minority groups with the access of insurance facilities (Outreach Strategists, 2012). Majority of the Africans and Latinos cannot access insurance or even have the access of a private doctor. On this ground, the economic aspects of the culturally diverse population considerably affect the health disparities in Houston. Aggregated Data and Analysis Houston’s Racial Demographics Causes of Death Cause of Death Mortality per 100,000 Black/African American White HP 2010 Objective Heart Dis. 334 249.5 166/less Cancer 258.4 196.3 159.9/less Stroke 97.9 61.4 48 or less Diabetes 53.8 18.6 45 or less HIV/AIDS 26.5 4.9 0.7 or less Access to Insurance Harris County Residents Without Health Insurance Race Percentage of Respondents (%) Hispanic/Latino 55.7% Black/African American 17.6% White 9.0% Access to Personal Care Harris County Residents Who Could Not Afford to See Doctor When Needed in Previous Year Race (%) Respondents Hispanic/Latino 33% Black/African American 24% White 10% Heart Disease Death Rates Health Indicators in Houston Priority Issues From a close examination of the assessment of healthcare system in Houston, there arise a number of issues that are priority in ensuring high quality of life in this city. To begin with, the issue of health disparity is one of crucial aspects in this region. From the data, it is clear that citizens from minority groups lag behind in terms of healthcare (Outreach Strategists, 2012). The mortality of the Latinos and Black Americans stand high while that of the white people is reasonably high. This is a phenomenon that may be associated with the economic crisis evident among these minority groups. High poverty levels among aboriginals results to lack of ability to afford health insurance, private doctors or even access to health amenities available within the city. As the world embraces diversity management, there is need for the City to focus on the best approach to provide balance care, support its citizens to close the health gaps that thrive within this city. Secondly, it is apparent that the health sector needs to focus on the mortality rate at birth to achieve zero death rates of both mothers and infants at the time of birth. Although the infant and maternal mortality appear to be considerably low, there is need for Houston to bring this rate as low as possible to guarantee safety at birth. Mortality rate at birth is an issue that has attracted the attention of healthcare systems at birth (Solitare et al., 2012). High maternal mortality rate results in the increase of poverty level within a country as the children who survive lose their provider, hence exposing them to risk of poverty. Since there is a close relationship between the economy of a country and the health status of the people, there is need to reduce mortality at birth to ensure that the poverty level remains as low as possible. Thirdly, it is evident that Houston there is need for the government to bring down the cost of the medical services to ensure that the marginalized in society have the ability to pay for health services. Financially disadvantaged minority groups in Houston are unable to access health facilities due to the high cost of treatment. The cost of health services has become a priority for all health organizations in the world the main objective being to bring down the cost of health services as low as possible. Since Houston is one of the countries with the highest GDPS, it is anticipated that the government should provide affordable social services to reduce the mortality rate and to ensure that the minority groups have access to good health care. On this note, Houston should treat the cost of treatment as one of the priority issues within its health sector. Next, Adolescent pregnancy is an emerging issue in Houston in the recent past. 2008 statistics show that over 4.5% of children born in Houston belong to adolescent at the age of 17 and below (Solitare et al., 2012). This indicates a rise in adolescent pregnancy by 1% in the past year, which indicates an upward trend. As medical experts point out, teenage pregnancy undesirable as it poses risk to both the life of the mother and the child. Therefore, an upward trend in teenage pregnancy in Houston raises a warning flag that the health sector cannot afford to ignore. There seems to be shortage of community-based health services that are crucial in streamlining the health sector. The abuse of drugs and substances in Houston may be the reason for the rise in unwanted pregnancies in this city. Therefore, the health system needs to shift its focus on implementing intervention programs that will support the youth and preventing them from risking their personal lives. Finally, a close analysis of the data indicating the top killer diseases in Houston shows that the city has developed a wide range of lifestyle-associated diseases. Among the top killer diseases in Houston include heart attack, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension (Solitare et al., 2012). Therefore, it is clear that although the government has paid keen attention to reduce lifestyle diseases, it is clear that this problem persists and it is a priority issue that should be addresses as soon as possible to reduce the mortality rate in Houston. Lifestyle-Related Diseases in Houston Among the top-five critical health issues in Houston, the persistence of lifestyle connected diseases is most significant. This is because hypertension, Obesity, Heart Diseases and cancer are the most common killer diseases in the country (Solitare et al., 2012). For the government to bring the mortality rate as low as possible there is need to shift focus on this direction to ensure that the people adopt healthy lifestyles that do not expose them to killer diseases. In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Health People 2020 initiative with numerous objectives to ensure quality life of the people. One objective of the Healthy People 2020 was to attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable diseases, disability, injury and premature death (CDC, 2014). To a large extent, lifestyle diseases are preventable through adoption of healthy lifestyles and responsible behaviour. The department of health and human services motivates all health facilities to focus on a preventive approach to control diseases rather than a curative approach. This is because lifestyle diseases are expensive and complex to treat as compared to other diseases. Some diseases such as Cancer are still a great challenge to the scientists who are still struggling to identify treatment for this disease. A wide range of lifestyle behaviours can be linked to the increase in lifestyle-related diseases in Houston. To begin with, there exists a direct relation with poor eating habits and the prevalence of diabetes, obesity and hypertension in the society. Between 1990 and 2009, the percentage of obese adults increased from 12% to 30%, triggering a research into the possible causes of the trend (Williams & Lopez, 2012). An examination of the public populations showed that low income earners could not afford healthy food such as fruits and vegetables. The consumption of high carbohydrate and high fat food was common among the people. The consumption of hamburgers and chicken nuggets was more prevalent among many members of the community. This clearly shows that the uptake of unhealthy foods is the possible reason for the rise in the cases of Obesity in Houston. The prevalence of cancer and heart diseases has a one-to-one relationship with the increased consumption of drug substances, lack of exercise and social-emotional wellness. In Houston, about 16.8% of the population are smokers, majority, about 22%, being Black Americans. Cancer statistics in Houston shows that over 50% of those diagnoses with lung Cancer and over 30% of those suffering heart complexities are regular smokers (Outreach Strategists, 2012). As the world strives to maintain a tobacco free environment, youths are finding their way into drugs predisposing themselves to serious diseases. Additionally, lack of emotional support in the city life contributes to numerous lifestyle diseases. People are too busy focussing on their studies and work, forgetting the need for social interaction and the role of body exercise in maintain healthy living. On this note, there is need for an intervention program to ensure healthy living lifestyles that would reduce preventable diseases, in line with Healthy People 2020 initiative. Lifestyle Intervention Program One major objective of the Healthy People 2020 initiative was to ensure that health programs use a preventive approach to reduce diseases and to construct a healthy society by the year 2020 (CDC, 2014). The main of this program is to design a preventive approach that would help the Houston’s citizens to maintain healthy lifestyles, which in turn ensures reduction of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and a wide group of such diseases. The short-term strategy of the intervention program would be to create awareness for the need for healthy lifestyle in maintaining good health. The program would incorporate anti-tobacco and anti-junk campaign as the main themes of the program. The program would target all groups of people including school children, employees in various organizations. For a period of 3 months, five-teams would be assigned specific target areas in which they should visit and educate on healthy living issues. Significant issues of this program would be to educate the public on matters of healthy eating, refraining from smoking and engaging in physical activities. Lack of critical information on healthy lifestyles is one of the reasons why the citizens in Houston have adopted unhealthy living patterns (Lappalainen et al., 2014). To assess the outcome of this program, the various teams would ask their audience random questions to ensure that they can define healthy living and enumerate various consequences of unhealthy lifestyles. The second part of the intervention program would be long-term measures stimulate healthy lifestyles within the public. This would encompass the development of an integrative approach in inducing healthy living among the Houston public. The health department would develop a community-based approach by providing community advisors to support educate the public and solve various challenges that hinder people from living a healthy lifestyle. The community advisors would target the youths and educate them on ways of solving their stresses. Within a period of six months, the community program should encourage the youths to participate in sports by providing them with sporting gears and other amenities. To motivate them, there would be inter-regional competition every month and prizes would be awarded the winners. Evidence shows that over 50% of youths engage in drugs due to depression and lack of parental guidance. After one year, the program would target organizations to educate them on the need for active living. Over 50% of Houston employees walk less than half a kilometre daily as they do to work (Lappalainen et al., 2014). Consequently, there are vulnerable to diabetes, blood pressure and obesity. The program would encourage the employee to opt to work to job rather than board a vehicle. Since most employees argue that they cannot walk due to insecurity at night, the program would encourage the public to take indoor activities such as visiting the gym and taking leisure on weekends. In addition, the program would invite all the management to organize social events and to have diet advisors within the company. This will ensure that organizations contribute to the well-being of the community. The long-term approach is expected to achieve 30% reduction on the number of new smokers in Houston, and 40% increase in the number of employees who walk and engage in activities other than work. In addition, the program aims at reducing the number of reported cases of depression in hospital. To assessment the impact of this program, we would conduct a survey in various organizations to identify the number of cases of depression reported in hospital and in schools. To measure its impact on the employees’ lifestyle, the team would conduct a survey to estimate the number of employees that walk to work or engage in regular physical exercises. The long-term assessment criteria involve the assessment of the statistics of lifestyle related diseases in the society after five years. Within the first five years, the program expects to reduce the number of lifestyle related conditions by 5%. On this note, this program will contribute to the Healthy People 2020 initiative that intends to inspire prevention of diseases through healthy living and adoption of effective measures to prevent high mortality rate in the world. References CDC, (2014). Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from :< http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy _people/hp2020.htm > Lappalainen, R., Sairanen, E., Järvelä, E., Rantala, S., Korpela, R., Puttonen, S., & ... Kolehmainen`, M. (2014). The effectiveness and applicability of different lifestyle interventions for enhancing wellbeing: the study design for a randomized controlled trial for persons with metabolic syndrome risk factors and psychological distress. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 1-33. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-310 Outreach Strategists, (2012). Houston/ Harris Healthy Equity Transformative Initiative; Health Equity Assessment. Retrieved from:< http://www.houstontx.gov/health/ community transformation/HE_Assessmentt_Final.pdf> Solitare, L., Andress, L., Lewis, C. A., Crossley, D., & Crossley, J. B. (2012). A Health Impact Assessment Of Transit-Oriented Development At The Quitman Light Rail Station In Houston, Texas. Retrieved from :< http://www.pewtrusts.org /en/projects/health-impact-project > Williams, S., & Lopez, D., (2012). The State of Health Houston. Retrieved from :< http://houstonstateofhealth.org/hshcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/State-of-Health-2013-Ex-Summary-Final.pdf > Read More