Community input identifies environmental, socioeconomic factors that impact health in UVM Medical Center’s 2019 assessment
by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center released the findings of its 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Thursday, highlighting issues identified by the community as central to improving people’s lives in Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties. The report is issued every three years, and serves as a guide for targeting funding and other resources. The top six topic areas identified in 2019 are mental health, substance use disorder, affordable housing, childhood and family health, disease prevention and cancer.
Many factors led to the inclusion of each area. For example, mental health was ranked as a top priority due to impacts on the community from poor mental health conditions – from increased diagnosis of depression and anxiety to heightened deaths related to substance use disorder. More than one in five adults in Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties have a depressive disorder diagnosis, consistent with the state ratio, but higher than the national average.
“So much of what we think of as ‘health’ depends on factors outside the walls of the hospital or doctor’s office,” said Dr. Steve Leffler, Interim President of the UVM Medical Center. “To truly help Vermonters get and stay as healthy as possible, we have to look deeper at the conditions in which people of all ages and backgrounds live and work.”
Data and findings from the CHNA will be used by organizations across our community to guide services, advocate for public policies, secure funding, and improve health and wellness of residents across Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties.
Some notable findings include a severe rise over recent years in opioid/fentanyl deaths, which comes as no surprise. Meanwhile use of alcohol and marijuana have remained largely unchanged.
While the counties and the state are generally in better physical health than the US across the board, and in some cases by quite a bit, as in adult obesity, and including slightly lower rates of mental health issues, there is higher youth obesity in the counties and across the state than there is in the US population.
Despite having a lower overall cancer death rate, some cancer incidence rates are higher in Vermont than in the US: Breast (female); melanoma; lung and bronchus; and bladder. Melanoma is especially more prevalent (VT 31.5 percent versus US 20.7 percent).
It should be noted that in the counties and across the state, the cancer incidence rate is higher than the US rate, despite a lower death rate. The report suggests that this indicative of early detection and screening and other awareness measures.
Also notable is the steep decline in teenage pregnancy rates over the decade in both counties and across the state, which have been cut in half.
“This research is critical to guiding the work we do with our community partners,” said Julie Cole, Senior Community Benefit Strategist at the UVM Medical Center. “Previous assessments have prompted vital investments in access to healthy food, affordable housing, and substance use disorder initiatives, among many others.
The UVM Medical Center routinely conducts community health needs assessments (CHNA) to understand current health trends and needs. While the Affordable Care Act mandates that all non-profit hospitals conduct a CHNA every three years, the UVM Medical Center has proudly led assessments since the 1980s.
The 2019 CHNA covers a large range of topics but is not a complete analysis of any one issue. Rather, these data help to identify priorities which lead to productive community discussion and creation of goals.
To see a list of the many community partners who assisted with the assessment, and to read the full report, visit: www.uvmhealth.org/medcenter/Documents/CHNA-March2019-web-approved.pdf
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a 447-bed tertiary care regional referral center providing advanced care to approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York. Together with our partners at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are Vermont’s academic medical center. The University of Vermont Medical Center also serves as a community hospital for approximately 150,000 residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties.
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a member of The University of Vermont Health Network, an integrated system established to deliver high quality academic medicine to every community we serve.
For more information visit www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenter or visit our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites at www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenterSocialMedia.
Source: UVMMC 4.18.2019