HEALTH METRICS
Health needs are determined in cooperation with community health partners: UnityPoint Health, MercyOne, People’s Clinic, and the Black Hawk County Public Health Department.
We invest in programs that affect key factors in community health.
Maternal Health and Infant Well-Being
We know that a birth weight below 5.5 lbs. puts children at risk for a range of preventable health problems, so we invest in programs to improve maternal health and infant well-being and measure success with two key indicators:
- Percent of mothers who start prenatal care in the first trimester, which increases the likelihood of good nutrition and better management of pre-existing health conditions.
- Percent of babies who are born at a low birth weight, which accounts for most differences in complications and infant mortality.
On both measures, we do a little better than the Iowa state average, but not quite as well as the U.S. average. We would like to see continued improvement across time.
Increase Healthy Behaviors
Many aspects of physical and mental health depend on making healthy behavior choices. We invest in healthy lifestyles through health information, education, and programing across several key areas.
Obesity contributes directly to heart disease and stroke, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and several cancers. We measure our progress toward community health with
Adults overweight and obesity rates measured in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI) as well as youth overweight and obesity rates for K-8 school children.
Overweight and obesity rates remain above national and state averages, but they seemed to have stopped increasing over the past few years. We hope that recent efforts have started to show some results.
Substance Abuse
Various kinds of substance abuse lead to health problems, including cancer, accidental deaths, and mental health issues. We measure achievement in terms of
- Adult smoking rate
- Binge drinking rate
- Alcohol consumption amongst youth
- Tobacco consumption among youth
- Marijuana consumption among youth
- Crack/cocaine use among youth
Sexual Health
Access to Physical Healthcare
Individuals receive timely, regular, preventative health care
Access to Mental Healthcare
Access to mental health care, including prevention and early intervention