Kootenai County's checkup reveals alarming hazards

This is the first of a two-part series addressing an annual report that compared health and environmental factors within counties in every state.

TODAY: How do the various statistics in Kootenai County look when weighed against overall Idaho county averages?

By STEVE CAMERON

Staff Writer

Hey, we’re living longer than most Idahoans.

On the other hand ...

We smoke more, drink more, have more alcohol-impaired driving deaths, drag ourselves through more preventable hospital stays, plus we top the state average in poor physical health days and poor mental health days.

And ...

We have a worse food environment index, a lower high school graduation rate, higher unemployment numbers, more children in poverty and significantly more violent crime.

As for the five categories relating to physical environment, Kootenai County trails the rest of the state in all of them: air pollution (measured by particulate matter), a drinking water violation, severe housing problems, more people driving alone to work, and more workers taking cars on longer commutes.

Finally ...

(Pause for breath)

We have an astronomically high, and frankly scary, rate of sexually transmitted infections.

To give you an idea of the STI epidemic in Kootenai County, the average Idaho county has experienced 337.6 newly diagnosed chlamydia cases per 100,000 residents — while our number is a frightening 408.3.

Putting that in perspective, the best performing counties nationally at reporting new chlamydia cases check in down at 145.5.

All these depressing numbers come courtesy of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Analysts from these organizations collaborate to produce “County Health Rankings & Roadmaps” once each year.

By the way, Kootenai County ranks ninth among Idaho counties when all the categories are combined (down from fifth a year ago), but that’s primarily because we check in at a heady sixth in “Clinical Care.”

“Kootenai has very good physician-to-patient and dentist-to-patient ratios,” said Amanda Joovag, a rankings analyst from the University of Wisconsin.

“Only 16 percent of the population is uninsured, which is fine, and your numbers are good in monitoring diabetes (85 percent) and mammography screening (63 percent).”

On the downside, we rank 39th of 42 Idaho counties in that “Physical Environment” category — basically air and water quality — although that isn’t quite as upsetting as it sounds.

Water quality is judged by whether a county has had a single drinking water violation in a year, and Kootenai County has 188 individual water systems.

“We have a very small system in Post Falls where bottled water is necessary,” said Dan Redvine, regional administrator for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. “We’re talking about service to 160 people, so counting us as having one violation can lead people off track.”

Actually, our air isn’t bad, either.

If these sort of numbers are your thing, this study measures air quality by the average daily density of fine particulate matter in micrograms per cubic meter.

An average of 12 is considered good by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Kootenai County’s current measurement is a nice 7.7.

The 42 Idaho counties in the study, however, average 7.2 — which is darn clear air when you consider that the best in the nation is 6.7.

The entire study is broken down into four umbrella categories: Health Outcomes, Health Factors, Social & Economic Factors and Physical Environment.

Kootenai County’s statewide rank in each general category: No. 10 in Health Outcomes; No. 19 in Health Factors; No. 21 in Social & Economic Factors; and that unpleasant No. 39 in Physical Environment.

Just as some of the numbers aren’t as threatening as they seem (air and water quality, for instance), others are deeply concerning.

The outrageously high total of sexually transmitted infections — 2 1/2 times the better counties nationally – obviously strikes a cause for concern.

Anne Roubal, a population health analyst at the University of Wisconsin and co-author of the annual survey, suggested that Kootenai County’s tourist influx might have something to do with the STI numbers.

She first mentioned how visitors could push up drinking and driving-death numbers, and added: “STI rates are recorded by physicians at clinics/hospitals. So if, for instance, a tourist went to be treated, that case would be reported in your county.

“This is usually reported monthly at the state level (we only get the national one-time estimate), so it might be worth looking at county-level data to see if you could spot a seasonal trend based on the tourist seasons there.”

Calls regarding seasonal STI rates were not returned by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s regional office.

If you want to dig deeper into all of these Kootenai County numbers and how they compare to the rest of the state, go to www.countyhealthrankings.org and there will be various links leading you into different categories.

MONDAY: How are county agencies reacting to this annual survey, and what’s being done to fix some of the lagging areas in our health and environment?