Latest Community Health Indicators Now Available
RocHealthData now has updated data for key clinical measures of the region’s health, including childhood and adult obesity, diabetes control rates and blood pressure control rates. As in the previous years’ data for the 13-county region, the population health dataset contains clinical data at a granular level – by county, age, and sex. For the most recent years (2020 and 2021), data are available by race and ethnicity.
With a total sample of more than 750,000 observations, the 2021 Community Health Indicators Report was commissioned by Common Ground Health (CGH) with data collected by Rochester Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO), the region’s trusted health information exchange. This information is summarized from more than one million de-identified clinical records from across the Finger Lakes region, securely stored by the Rochester RHIO.
Two points of comparison between the data 2020 and 2021 are the percentage changes in diabetes control and childhood obesity. The percentage of adults with diabetes in control has shifted from 83% to 87%, while the percentage of childhood obesity has changed from 21% to 22%.
“While the change in diabetes control rate is positive, the change in childhood obesity is consistent with the national trends,” shares Kathleen Holt, PhD, senior staff scientist at UR Medicine’s Center for Community Health & Prevention (CCHP) and manager of the RocHealthData site. “We should keep in mind that these data from 2021, as was the case 2020, were likely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of a variety of factors impacting health and health care.”
“From a public health perspective, children with obesity are often at a higher risk for developing other health conditions such as hypertension, sleep apnea, and type 2 diabetes,” shares Susan Gasparino, MD, MPH, medical director of clinical and community-based programs at the CCHP.
The Center’s multi-disciplined clinical team provides support to families and pediatric patients facing these challenges. “Our goal is to promote healthy eating behaviors that provide nutrition for growing bodies with a focus on family engagement, encouraging health across the lifespan,” shared Gasparino.
The RocHealthData website, developed and supported by the CCHP and Clinical & Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI), makes local and regional health data accessible through customizable maps and reports. More than 1,200 have access to the map room, which has more than 10,000 sets of health-related data, from cancer screening rates to heat vulnerability and a variety of social determinants of health.
These data from 2021 provided in the Community Health Indicators Report will be the final data of this kind on the RocHealthData platform. “These data have been a health focus in our community since 2017, when Common Ground and the Rochester RHIO first collaborated with RocHealthData to monitor local health trends and share these reports,” explains Holt. “It may be time to consider other measures of health and well-being in our community, and to shift away from these specific indicators. We at RocHealthData look forward to sharing additional regional population health measures as they become available.”
RocHealthData visitors can go to the new Community Health Indicators page to see highlights of the four key health measures across the region. Access to all of the data is easily accessible and free. To download and/or interact with the data through customizable maps, users can register and become a member of the site.