Montgomery County Health Officials Release Updated Report on Health Disparities

Per Montgomery County:

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 10, 2022

County health officials have released the latest Report on Health Equity for Montgomery County. The last report was issued in 2019. The report includes information and data on maternal and infant health, behavioral health, chronic disease, infectious disease, and injury in the County. The report addresses population subgroups on race/ethnicity and geographic areas for Healthy Montgomery Core Measures, evaluating health equity from the perspectives of current disparity and change of disparity over time, using data from 2010 to 2018. The report highlights where and how disparities exist and how they have changed over time.

“Montgomery County performs better than State and national averages on most health measures, but there are disparities among population subgroups on race/ethnicity and geographic areas that are concerning,” said Dr. James Bridgers, acting health officer. “This is important to understand with the community’s diverse population and the trend toward becoming more diverse over time. More than 32 percent of our community’s population were born outside the United States, and our goal is to utilize the data to inform programs and policies, target intervention efforts and allocate resources to address health disparities.”

One of the functions of public health is surveillance and to use the information gathered during surveillance to drive practice innovation, policy analysis, prevention methods, health promotion messages, and planning activities related to public health.

Key findings of the report are included below, by group, listing exhibits from the most disparity to the least:

Current inequity status (non-Hispanic White as a reference group)

Non-Hispanic/Black: Tuberculosis (TB) incidence, HIV incidence, firearm hospitalization, gonorrhea incidence, chlamydia incidence, syphilis incidence, diabetes emergency (ER) visits, motor vehicle ER visits, chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD) ER visits, births with late/no prenatal care, infant mortality, heart disease ER visits, diabetes mellitus mortality, substance abuse ER visits, behavioral health ER visits, preterm birth, and heart disease mortality.

Hispanic: TB incidence, HIV incidence, chlamydia incidence, diabetes ER visits, motor vehicle ER visits, syphilis incidence, births with late/no prenatal care, firearm hospitalization, gonorrhea incidence, ER visits for CLRD, infant mortality, heart disease ER visits, substance abuse ER visits, preterm births, and diabetes mellitus mortality.

Asian/Pacific Islander: TB incidence, syphilis incidence, births with late/no prenatal care, infant mortality, and preterm births.

Inequity status of health outcomes by race/ethnicity also varied across geographic areas.

Demonstrated differences in inequality over time (non-Hispanic/White as a reference group)

Non-Hispanic-Black: Fall mortality, CLRD mortality, suicide mortality, HIV incidence, fall hospitalization, diabetes ER visits, heart disease mortality, heart disease ER visits, infant mortality, diabetes mortality, substance abuse ER visits, late/no prenatal care, motor vehicle ER visits, behavioral health ER visits, and CLRD ER visits.

Hispanic: Firearm hospitalization fall mortality, diabetes ER visits, suicide mortality, infant mortality, syphilis incidence, heart disease ER visits, behavioral health ER visits, CLRD mortality, HIV incidence, preterm births, and heart disease mortality.

Asian/Pacific Islander: Suicide mortality, infant mortality, diabetes mortality, heart disease mortality, syphilis incidence, CLRD mortality, diabetes ER visits, behavioral health ER visits, and heart disease ER visits.

Differences in inequity over time of health outcomes by race/ethnicity also varied across geographic areas.

Visit the Department of Health and Human Services website to view the full report. For more information, contact Chunfu Liu at [email protected].