Utah has devised a more accurate way to gauge the health of its residents, and the new numbers aren’t flattering.
More Utahns are uninsured than previously thought — 368,200 adults in 2010, a 49 percent jump from the prior estimate of 247,100. And more of us smoke: 11.2 percent of adults, instead of 8.8 percent.
But that’s just the beginning.
Changes in how the state conducts and calculates its largest public health poll, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey, are yielding new estimates on just about every health indicator, from smoking and drug use to exercise and cancer screenings, said Michael Friedrichs, epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health’s Bureau of Health Promotion.
Some indicators budged by just a percentage point or two, within the margin of error. Rates of asthma and arthritis, for example, are statistically the same.
But all the indicators moved in the wrong direction toward a "greater burden" of unhealthy habits, Friedrichs said. "We’ve been overestimating mammography and colonoscopy [screening] rates and underestimating binge drinking by a few percentage points." Salt Lake Tribune
