Hawai'i data mixed over health checkup

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The latest report on the health of Hawai'i residents is a mixed bag — the percentage of adults who smoke is lower than the national average, but new cases of breast and colorectal cancer are more common — but officials are happy at least that a wealth of information about our well-being is now more readily available.

The publication is part of the department's Healthy Hawai'i Initiative and its effort to create a central source of community health information. The initiative is financed through the state's Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund, enabled by a 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and 46 states, including Hawai'i. The $206 billion settlement resolved with the tobacco companies the states' claims for healthcare spending on sick smokers.

It compares various health measures — infant mortality rates, incidence of various diseases, obesity rates and physical activity levels — to goals set by Healthy People 2010, a program of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The report also breaks down some information by counties and by communities. For example, the percentage of newborns delivered at a low birth weight — an indicator of poor maternal health — ranges from 6.2 percent on Maui to 8.4 percent in Hawai'i County. All Islands fall short of the Healthy People goal of 5 percent.

Each island is subdivided further. For O'ahu, figures are available for each of 13 communities defined primarily by school-district boundaries, Susan Jackson, manager of the state's tobacco settlement program, said.

"It brings all of this much closer to home," Jackson said. "People can look at it and say, 'How does this affect me and what can I do about it?' "

By mid-2003, the online data base will become searchable and will be updated with more current statistics, she said. Eventually there will be a mapping capability, enabling social service workers and policymakers to evaluate the health needs in specific districts.

"People at the community level can look at the community and make their own decisions on where to put their energies," Jackson said.

In some areas, Hawai'i faces an uphill battle. The state's rate of diabetes is 52 per 1,000 population, more than double the national Healthy People goal of 25 per 1,000.

Other highlights from the state report:

• Hawai'i has met a national goal in the use of mammograms. The Healthy People goal is to keep the proportion of women who neglect their biennial mammogram to 30 percent; statewide, that figure is estimated at 11.6 percent.
• Coronary heart disease kills at the rate of 123.6 per 100,000 population in Hawai'i; the national goal rate is 166 per 100,000.
• In a state with year-round weather conducive to exercise, the population still falls short of national goals for exercise. The proportion of people claiming they spend no leisure time in physical activity is 23.2 percent statewide; the Healthy People goal is 20 percent.
• About 19.7 percent of the adult population statewide smokes, according to the data; the national average is 23.2 percent.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.