Officials list top health priorities for counties
adults can’t find fresh fruits and vegetables in their area.
“In a recent survey, we found more than 50 percent of the stores, including convenience stores, had no fresh fruits or vegetables available,” Rice said.
3. Educating the public on healthy lifestyles and helping them to make healthy choices – The major cause of death in Yuba County is heart disease, a condition impacted by lifestyle choices, Rice said.
4. Increasing opportunities for physical activity – “Almost 78 percent of Yuba County adults are overweight or obese,” Rice said. “This is directly related to our choices in food and our lack of physical activity. We would like to get our citizens to eat better and move (more).”
5. Increasing targeted interventions to promote health equity. It is easy to say people need to eat healthy and get preventive care, Rice said, but some members of the community can’t access healthy food choices, either due to the cost or availability.
6. Improving access and use of preventive health care. Sometimes residents are willing to seek preventive care, he said, but they don’t have transportation to go see a doctor for well patient visits. Transportation limitations make only urgent care visits feasible.
7. Improving access to oral health care. “What goes on in our mouth can impact our whole body,” Rice said. “Unfortunately in Yuba County, we do not have access to adequate dental care, especially in our rural areas. Yuba County has one dentist for every 2,870 residents ...” He said that’s more than twice the state average of residents per dentist.
Sutter County 1. Communicable disease control. Newly emerging diseases like Zika and re-emerging diseases like whooping cough, syphilis, and measles is of concern. Syphilis cases are on the rise, Bhattal said, and education is imperative to limiting exposure to and prevention of Zika and West Nile viruses.
“Measles and whooping cough are preventable by use of vaccines,” Bhattal said in an email. “Our rates of vaccination in our county have declined compared to previous years. This can lead to outbreaks if this trend continues.”
The public needs to be aware of this and use proper protection to prevent the spread of the diseases and getting timely treatment from their medical provider is a must, she said.
2. Smoking. Tobacco use is related to the top three diseases (coronary heart disease; cerebrovascular disease (stroke); and all cancers, though lung cancer is higher in this category.
3. High rates for those diseases. Coronary heart disease: The Sutter County Health Status profile for 2016 indicates a higher than state average, Bhattal said. Same with cerebrovascular disease (strokes) and with all cancers.
4. Diabetes. The Sutter County Health Status profile for 2016 also indicates a higher than state aver- age for diabetes.
5. “Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death,” Bhattal said. “More efforts by individuals need to be made in increasing physical activity and making healthier food choices. It is always helpful when there are adequate and safe spaces for physical activities and where healthy food is easily accessible, where the healthy food choice is the easy food choice.”
6. Chronic lower respiratory disease (for example chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma). The Sutter health profile indicates a higher than state average.
7. Accidents (unintentional injuries such as falls, motor vehicle accidents, poisonings). The county has a higher-thanstate-average number.
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