What Is Your County’s Public Health Score?
DHS Releases Annual Public Health Report Cards
[Posted 04/07/05]

The Department of Health Services (DHS) on Monday released its 13th annual public health report comparing health statistics from California’s 58 counties. The report, “County Health Status Profiles 2005,” uses data on key health indicators collected from 2000 through 2003.

These indicators—including death rate, teen birth rate, percentage of mothers who breast-feed, and incidence of communicable diseases such as AIDS, measles, and tuberculosis—help monitor state and county progress toward achieving the public health goals laid out under the federal Healthy People 2010 Initiative. Overall, the report found that California continues to meet or exceed key health objectives, include reducing the teen birth rate, increasing the percentage of mothers who breast-feed, and lowering the death rate from all causes.

The DHS public health report card comes less than a month after the release of the nationwide community need index that placed California near the bottom of the list when it comes to access to care. The index, developed by San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, is calculated by zip code using socioeconomic indicators long known to contribute to health disparities, including insurance, income, and employment status.

Contact: Robin Flagg, 415/882-5110 or rflagg@cmanet.org.