Health officials say Clark County residents have some of the worst social and economic determinants of health in the state, but the region has seen some improvements in life expectancy and smoking rates. That's what it means.
The Southern Nevada Health District released its 2024 County Health Rankings Wednesday and heard from agencies such as the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission on how to address health disparities across the state.
John Packham, associate director of statewide initiatives at the UNR School of Medicine, explains how Nevada counties rank in terms of physician shortages, obesity rates and other health factors that influence outcomes. I talked about the dolphins in detail.
Packman said Clark County has “slowly moved up the rankings in terms of (health) outcomes over the last year,” including life expectancy, and currently ranks fourth among counties.
“The bottom line is that Clark County's health status is worse than the average county in Nevada, but not by much,” he said. “We're about in the middle of the pack among counties in the country. Clark County's health status is slightly worse than the average county in Nevada, and it's a similar story that it's worse than the average county in the United States.”
According to the rankings, life expectancy in Clark County is 77.2 years, slightly higher than the state average of 77 years. The average age in the United States is 78.5 years.
“As we emerge from the pandemic, we literally saw life expectancy drop by a year or two or more in some communities,” Packham said. “I think we're starting to see recovery and improvement in this area.”
There are several health factors that make Clark County better than the national average.
According to the Health Rankings report, Clark County's adult obesity rate is 31.3%, which is better than the state and national averages of 31.5% and 34%, respectively.
Southern Nevada is also working to bring its smoking rate down to 16.4%, which he noted is “half of what it was in the '90s.”
However, the state average is 15.3%, while the national rate is 15%.
Nevada counties have also long struggled to address physician shortages, which are contributing to poor health outcomes.
Currently, Clark County has 1,831 residents to 1 physician, compared to a statewide ratio of 1,763 residents to 1 physician.
By comparison, the U.S. average is 1,300 to 1.
Access to dental care was not specified in Wednesday's presentation, but Packham said “access to dental care providers has improved markedly.”
“Changes occurred when we decided to build and expand a public dental school,” he said. “Other parts of the state haven’t seen this much improvement in access to dental care, but I think there has been a big change in Southern Nevada.”
One of the health district's priorities to address health disparities is expanding medical services in “medical deserts” to target historically uninsured populations, such as the LGBTQ community and undocumented immigrants. He said he is working on it.
Packham said counties, as well as states, could improve health outcomes by focusing on different solutions to address food insecurity and address the housing crisis and transportation access issues. said.
