Local News
HEALTH: Obesity epidemic weighs on county
Rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are epidemic in Niagara County, the county health department’s latest Community Health Assessment shows.
The department is organizing a coalition of human service agencies and groups to take aim at these hefty public health problems.
The difficult task ahead, according to deputy director Victoria Pearson: Getting people to help themselves.
Lifestyle changes — eating a better diet, exercising more, dropping bad habits like smoking and binge drinking — are the best means of preventing many chronic illnesses, public health experts know.
How to get people turned on to prevention, instead of pills once health problems emerge, is the question posed to the newly formed Healthy Communities Capacity Building coalition.
“Health care is very expensive and ... people are too dependent on a health system that’s focused on acute care (medication, surgery, responding to problems),” Pearson said. “What about prevention? Diet? Exercise? Behavior is 30 to 40 percent” of a person’s health status.
The county’s 2010-13 Community Health Assessment, compiled by Public Health Educator Claudia Kurtzworth from state and federal data, shows the Niagara County population isn’t among the healthiest in New York state, despite the fact residents have higher-than-state-average rates of health insurance coverage and visits to doctors.
Of Niagara County residents, it says:
• 62 percent of adults are overweight or obese. About 27 percent are obese, compared with 23 percent statewide.
• 12 percent of adults have diabetes, compared with 10 percent statewide.
• 27 percent are smokers, compared with 17 percent statewide.
• Rates of heart disease and lung cancer are among the highest in the state.
“We have so many epidemics going here ... and they’re all equal opportunity diseases; they’re not limited to low-income (populations),” Kurtzworth said.
With encouragement from the state, the health department is reaching out to local human service agencies to get them jointly addressing Niagara’s “areas of high concern,” according to Wanda Smiley, director of patient services.
The Healthy Communities Capacity Building coalition is an attempt to put myriad organizations — YMCAs, food pantries, Head Start, hospitals, schools, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Catholic Charities, etc. — together to advance discussion of, and strategies for, teaching nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles to segments of the population.
Ideally, Smiley said, agencies will share information and work together on common goals, including winning grants for outreach projects. “Core” members of the coalition are receiving training in interagency cooperation.
“I think a lot of agencies realize some things need changing, but no one can do it alone,” she said.
The core group is meeting at 9 a.m. March 31 at the Cooperative Extension, Lake Avenue, Lockport. Service organization representatives who want more information about the coalition may call Smiley at 439-7480.
Separately, Pearson said she’s looking into the way school breakfast/lunch menus are set and why. Her curiosity is piqued after a series of flu shot clinics at local school; while staffing them, she ate the same lunches that schoolchildren get and was dismayed to learn one school offers French fries every day.
“Schools should be an example to children,” she said. “If it were up to me, (students) would have only healthy choices.”
Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.
- Local News
-
-
Emmett 'Triumphant' at Molson Canal Concert
Rik Emmett, the Canadian singer and former front man for the band Triumph, headlines Friday night’s Molson Canal Concert.
-
Lockport folks regaining pride through Old Home Week
Old Home Week was a hit, not on a grand scale, but on a hometown level, appreciated by natives and visitors, alike.
-
Airline safety bill OK'd
Members of the Western New York congressional delegation on Friday praised the final passage of sweeping legislation aimed at improving airline safety in the wake of a deadly commuter plane crash in Clarence Center last year.
-
Kids show off musical skills at Kenan
Eighteen fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students took part in a public concert on Friday at the Kenan Center Taylor Theater as part of the Summer Music Arts Program.
-
Red carpet rolled out for new Falls visitor center
John Percy was serious Friday when he pledged to roll out the red carpet for more than 200 guests attending the official opening of the new $2.4 million state-of-the-art Niagara USA Visitor Center.
-
BOCES program puts focus on careers
A group of students in grades 5 through 8 spent a part of their summer vacation inside of the classroom — and preparing for their future.
- Police blotter published July 31
-
How to protect against West Nile virus
The last reported case of West Nile virus in Niagara County came last year, affecting a Town of Lockport resident in the area of Upper Mountain Road and Sunset Drive.
With another confirmed case of infected mosquitos just south of Buffalo this week, authorities are warning residents to take precautions -
State incentive encourages Barker-Lyndonville schools merger
There would be a big advantage for the school districts of Barker and Lyndonville if they were to merge, an advisory committee found out Thursday.
-
Teen released, man in fair condition after fire
Two of three men injured in a boat fire Tuesday in Wrights Corners have been released from the hospital, while a third is still in fair condition.
- More Local News Headlines
-
