Author: Tonya Lowery St. John

The latest longitudinal report on the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring Survey (PRAMS) is this month’s featured content on Hawaii Health Matters.  This new trend report tracks 23 maternal and infant health measures from 2009-2015, and includes information by county, race/ethnicity, age, and federal poverty level as well as statewide trends. Some of topic areas featured in the report include:

• Preconception health insurance, obesity, health care visits, teeth cleaning and vitamin intake
• Pregnancy intention
• Substance use before and during pregnancy
• Stressful life events and intimate partner violence before pregnancy
• Gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during pregancy
• Preterm and Cesarean deliveries
• Postpartum checkups, contraception and depression
• Breastfeeding at 8 weeks and infant sleep position

This report was published by the Hawaii Department of Health Family Health Services Division as a follow up to their 2000-2008 trend report. 

The Healthcare Association of Hawaii (HAH) has released the first report from its Healthcare Workforce Initiative.

This report focuses on assessing non-physician job demand in Hawaii.  A survey from the last quarter of 2018 through the first quarter of 2019, found more than 2,200 openings among 76 non-physician health care jobs—about a 10% vacancy rate.  Medical assistants, nurse aids, registered specialty nurses, patient service representatives and phlebotomists are among the professional who are most in demand. To read the full report and additional indicators about Hawaii’s physician and non-physician workforce visit HawaiiHealthMatters.org.

Hawaii ranked 24th among states in the 30th edition of the KIDS COUNT Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The  KIDS COUNT Data Book is this month’s featured content on HawaiiHealthMatters.org.

The data book provides a detailed picture of how children are faring in the United States, ranking states on overall child well-being by using four criteria each in the domains of economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.  Hawaii ranked 24th overall with strong showings in the areas health (10th) and family and community (15th), and lower rankings among states for economic well-being (34th) and education (40th).

There is also an interactive version of the data book on the Annie E Casey Foundation’s website for users to explore.

Updated census tract level data is available for CDC 500 Cities health indicators for Honolulu County on Hawaii Health Matters.

The data is part of the CDC 500 Cities project which is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the CDC Foundation. The project uses Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to create census tract-level small area estimates of prevalence for chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes and clinical preventive services for the 500 largest cities in the United States.  In Hawaii, census tract-level data is available for the the City and County of Honolulu.

The following indicators have been updated with 2016 data:

• Adults 65+ who Received Recommended Preventive Services:  Females
• Adults 65+ who Received Recommended Preventive Services: Males
• Adults 65+ with Total Tooth Loss
• Adults who are Obese
• Adults who are Sedentary
• Adults who Binge Drink
• Adults who Experienced a Stroke
• Adults who Experienced Coronary Heart Disease
• Adults who have had a Routine Checkup: Past Year
• Adults who Smoke
• Adults who Visited a Dentist
• Adults with Arthritis
• Adults with Cancer
• Adults with COPD
• Adults with Current Asthma
• Adults with Diabetes
• Adults with Kidney Disease
• Adults without Health Insurance
• Colon Cancer Screening: Sigmoidoscopy Past 5 Years and FOBT Past 3 Years, Colonoscopy Past 10 Years, or FOBT Past Year
• Insufficient Sleep
• Mammogram: 50-74 Past 2 Years
• Pap Test: Past 3 Years 21-65
• Poor Mental Health Days: 14+ Days
• Poor Physical Health Days: 14+ Days

The following indicators were updated with data from 2015:

• Adults who have Taken Medications for High Blood Pressure
• Cholesterol Test History: 5 Years
• High Blood Pressure Prevalence
• High Cholesterol Prevalence: Adults 18+

This month’s featured content on Hawaii Health Matters is the Hawaii 2019 County Health Rankings Report. The Rankings Report is designed to bring actionable data to help counties understand what influences how healthy their residents are and how long they will live. This year’s focus is on safe and affordable housing.

• In 2017, more than 30,000 children in Hawaii lived in poverty
• 56% of Hawaii’s children living in poverty were living in a household that spends more than half of its income on housing costs.

The full report for Hawaii can be accessed here and the full report for the United States can be found here.  Their website also includes an interactive tool to explore the data.

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project is  a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

HHDW is proud to introduce a new feature in the Indicator-Based Information System (IBIS)—Community Snapshot Reports.  Want more information about the health status of a particular community in Hawaii? This is the place. We have assembled a series of 22 health indicators from the BRFSS, PRAMS, YTS and YRBS to give you a quick snapshot of the health of community. Just select your community of interest by county or race/ethnicity and quickly see how they are doing compared to the rest of the state. Additional groups of indicators and communities will be added later this year.  Here are a few highlights….

• In Hawaii, Native Hawaiian high school students are more likely to have current asthma compared to students statewide (17.1% vs 12.7%).
• 8% of Hawaii County high school students have current asthma compared to 12.7% of students statewide.
• Native Hawaiian youth in middle school (20.8%) and high school (25.7%) and adults (28.4%) are more likely to meet age-specific physical activity guidelines that their counterparts statewide.
• Filipino adults are more likely to have diabetes than adults statewide (12.1% vs 8.7%)., but they are less likely to be obese (19.9% vs 23.4%).
• Almost three-quarters (74.4%) of Honolulu County adults aged 50-75 have been screened for colorectal cancer recently—significantly higher than any other county.
• Almost 90% of Japanese women have had a mammogram in the past two years compared to 84.4% of women statewide.
• Japanese adults were more likely to have high cholesterol (34.6%) than adults statewide (30.7%).

Use the Community Snapshot Reports in Hawaii-IBIS to explore more results and see how your community compares to the state. Visit our Introduction page to learn how to run your own Community Report.