Community Health Status Assessment

The Community Health Status Assessment identifies priority community health and quality of life issues. Questions answered include:

  • How healthy are our residents?
  • What does the health status of our community look like?
  • Does the health problem affect large numbers of people, have serious consequences, show evidence of wide inequity between groups or increasing trends and is it susceptible to proven interventions?
  • By addressing this issue, is there potential for a major breakthrough in approaching community health improvement?
  • Is this issue one that has been persistent, nagging, and seemingly insolvable? Is ongoing monitoring of this issue possible?

Following the MAPP model, participants in the forum were provided with secondary data including statistics on social, behavioral, and physical factors of Lawrence County, maternal child health information, diabetes, respiratory, cancer and substance use information. Participants were given time to review the information and discuss those factors of greatest importance for Lawrence County.

Lawrence County is currently ranked #99 of 120 counties in Kentucky according to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps 2022. Kentucky is ranked #42 in the State Health Rankings. Lawrence County is designated a medically underserved area by Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA).

Demographics

Lawrence County is an Appalachian community located in the eastern region of Kentucky:

  • The area is very rural with a population of 16,293 and a population density of 39.2 persons per square mile.
  • The population has increased from 15,860 in 2010 to 16,293 in 2020 according to census.gov with 49.9% female and 50.1% male.
  • 97.5% of residents are non-Hispanic White, 0.4% non-His-panic Black, 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% Asian, and 1.4% Hispanic.
  • 97.8% speak only English. Other languages spoken include Spanish (0.1%), other Indo-European (0.4%), and Asian and Pacific Island (1.7%).
  • Median household income is $37,014 compared to $55,454 for Kentucky and $69,021 for the United States.
  • Only 12% of residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher and 76.4% have completed high school.
  • Nearly 25% live in poverty with 34% of children living in poverty. Twenty percent experience food insecurity.
  • For health behaviors, 31% of adults smoke, 41% are obese, and 39% report no leisure time physical activity. These behaviors lead to chronic illnesses including 13% with diabetes, 14.8% with COPD, 46.4% with high blood pressure, and 10.2% with heart disease.
  • Primary care physicians and dentists are in short supply with 1 primary care physician per 3,060 and 1 dentist per 3,860. Only 65% of women ages 50-74 received mammography screening and 70.4% of adults 50-75 received a colorectal cancer screening.
  • The drug overdose rate is 44.8 deaths per 100,000 compared to 48.5 for the state, 28.7 for the U.S. and 43.6 for the Appalachian region.
  • The COVID-19 mortality rate is 487.1 compared to 441.7 for Kentucky. Only 49.9% of residents completed the primary series of COVID-19 vaccination.
  • Of interest to all was a new report by USA Today citing Lawrence County tied with Caddo County, OK for the most major disaster declarations since 1990 with 30.

Some of the factors of greatest importance discussed were chronic disease management, use of preventive screenings, cancer, tobacco prevention, mental health, adult and child obesity, nutrition and physical activity, dental services, teen pregnancy prevention, poverty, substance use disorders, housing insecurity and food insecurity. Included in this discussion was the concern for equity as rural residents face geographic barriers to services and resources. Those with lower incomes are doubly disadvantaged. Discussion included access to healthcare, strategies to address the transportation barrier, and the use of community health workers.