The DeKalb County Board of Health has released data from its 2015 Status of Health (SOH) in DeKalb report, which provides a comprehensive community health assessment of the health status of the people who live, work and play in the county.
Data used in the report, which is distributed every five years, comes from both primary and secondary sources. The 2015 SOH report provides snapshots of the leading causes of illness and disease, hospitalizations and deaths, how those health problems rank both nationally and in Georgia, and what local, state or national resources are available to address the problems.
While the report has some positive trends which have taken place over the last five years, health officials caution that there still remains more work to be done in collaboration with its numerous community partners to improve the overall health status of county residents.
Three areas of improvement include:
· Teen pregnancy rates decreased by 31%.
· Smoking rates for youth in DeKalb County decreased by 33%.
· Infant mortality rates decreased by 30%.
Areas that still remain challenging include:
· Women had high rates of high blood pressure and stroke deaths compared to men.
· Firearms were used in 39% of assault-related hospitalizations and 78% of homicides.
· Pertussis (Whooping Cough) cases increased every year.
For more information, please click here to view the full news release. Follow this link to view the full report.