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Show Public Health Report Card1 Overview: The Public Health Report Card published by the American Public Health Association, combines a comprehensive examination of health indicators into a condensed, easy-to-read table (Table 72, p. 62). The statistic is a straight-forward number that assigns a numerical value for comparative purposes. The rank places each state in an overall comparison with the other 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. If data are not available for a state in a particular area or sub-category, that state gets the worst, or lowest ranking, which limits the meaningfulness of the comparison. The quartile range indicates which overall place the state occupies in each category presented. The first quartile is the top 12 states in a category. The second quartile is the next 13 states, the third quartile the next 13 states, and the fourth quartile is the bottom 13 states. One limitation of this Report Card is that the same years are not used for all the sub-categories presented. The best data sets available were used; unfortunately some of these are now dated and may not be representative of what is currently happening in a state. Several of the indicators used in this report card deserve explanation. The following descriptions of indicators were taken from the appendix to America's Public Health Report Card. Medical Care Access: Overall, Utah is in the second quartile for this category. This means that Utah is somewhere between 13 and 26. More trend data and narrative are available on several of these variables in the Health Care section (pp. 64-12) of tins Review. Healthful Environment: Environmental factors can either enhance personal health or contribute to poor health outcomes. According to the Report Card, Utah does not compare well with other states in healthful environment. As is apparent from Table 72, Utah's ranking in pollution, unsafe drinking water, and fluoridated water are near the bottom compared to all other states. This places Utah in the fourth quartile overall, or in the lowest 13 states. "Pollution Standard Index" is measured by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA monitors pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and fine paniculate matter. Utah ranks 44th in the nation in the pollution standard index score. Utah's unique geography combined with pollution from autos, heavy industry, and oil refineries all contribute to this low ranking. The majority of the population live in a valley surrounded by mountains which trap polluted air until storms blow the pollution away. "Unsafe drinking water" is measured by the percentage of people who drink from a water source which is in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Acts of 1974 and 1986. Utah ranks 49th in the nation in level of people who are drinking from water sources in violation of the drinking Water Acts. The drinking water data are taken from a report provided by the National Wildlife Federation Fund, which uses information obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency. In response to the Report Card the Utah Department of Environmental Quality2 offered additional information about data used: (a) the violations are largely due to failure to monitor, not to actual quality; (b) the reliability of bacterial tests on which the Report Card is based are questionable; (c) many systems that are in violation are being used by small numbers of people. The Department concludes that most Utahns drink from safe water supplies. This illustrates the need to carefully consider the context of the data used as indicators. "Fluoridated water" measures the percentage of the population which drinks from public fluoridated water sources. Utah ranked 50th in the nation in this category. "Work-related injury cases" measures the total reportable cases of occupational injury and illnesses per 100,000 full time workers, by state, in private industry per year. Utah ranked 26th in the nation in this category. 1 American Public Health Association. (1992). America's Public Health Report Card. Washington, D.C.: Author, pp. 64-65 (appendix). 2Utah Department of Health, Division of Environmental Health, Bureau of Drinking Water/Sanitation. (1988, October). Memorandum to Suzanne Dandoy from Kenneth H. Bousfield regarding "National Wildlife Federation Fund Charges of Inadequate Enforcement on Drinking Water Standards." 60 PUBLIC HEALTH |
