Utah Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System : Local Health District Report, 1995-1998

Overall, the Utah population is relatively young and healthy. Its death rate is much lower than that for the U.S. (all cause deaths), and it has especially low rates of death for lung cancer and heart disease. These low rates are at least partially attributable to Utah's healthy lifestyles, such as low smoking rates and high rates of participation in physical activity. Utah is able to assess the prevalence of behavioral and lifestyle risk factors for disease using the CDC-sponsored Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone survey. From this ongoing survey, we also know that Utahns have relatively good insurance coverage and low rates of obesity compared with other states in the U.S. There is room for improvement, however. Utahns report only average physical and mental health (# days health not good), average consumption of fruits and vegetables, and our utilization of mammography and pap smear is lower than the U.S. median. The BRFSS produces local health district estimates every 3 years for most survey items. All BRFSS data are collected from adults, and are weighted to be representative of the adult population in the state and in each of Utah's 12 local health districts.