Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas is rated pretty sick place

Sun reporter Shaunta Grimes contributed to this report.

The health of Las Vegans is not good and has a good chance of getting worse according to a study released today.

The study, compiled by The Health Network and the Public Health Resource Group, looks at the health and wellness of people living in the nation's 50 largest cities. It found that nearly one in three Las Vegans -- 32 percent -- has some kind of health problem.

Las Vegas ranks as the 11th worst city with 12.1 percent of unwell people, the study says. It means that percentage of the population has been diagnosed with hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes or a chronic disease.

"We normally are one of the worst in health habit surveys," said Jeanne Palmer, health education manager for the Clark County Health District. "These kind of surveys are helpful to let us know where we stand, but I am always reluctant to give any report credence until I know where they got their data.

"Still, I do not want to excuse the fact that we do have bad health habits and we need to pay more attention to them."

Palmer said that how a survey compiles its data is key to its accuracy on how Las Vegans are truly affected. For instance, if the survey is based solely on the amount of cigarettes or alcohol sold in Las Vegas, then the findings will be misleading because tourists consume a large amount of those products.

Also, Palmer said, because Las Vegas has one of the fastest-growing senior populations in the nation, the city figures to rank low in such surveys given the illnesses that come with aging.

Norma Russell, spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association, said a lot of Las Vegans don't even know they are unhealthy. She noted that more than 75,000 people in Clark County have diabetes, but about 50,000 more people have the disease and don't know it.

"There is a very unhealthy lifestyle in Las Vegas that can lead to many diseases," Russell said. "Just look at the drinking, smoking, prostitution, buffets, gambling."

Maureen Brower, director of advocacy and communication for American Heart Association, agreed, saying: "We live a 24-hour lifestyle in Las Vegas. There are no smoking restrictions in casinos so employees are always at risk for secondhand smoke."

In the PHRG survey, Fresno, Calif., came in with the highest number of unwell people with 17 percent, followed by Miami, New Orleans, Detroit, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco and Baltimore all at around 14 percent and Memphis and Los Angeles at about 13 percent.

Atlanta (about 6 percent), and Washington, D.C., and Seattle (about 7 percent) had the lowest numbers of unwell people.

Las Vegas was ranked 45th in percentage of well people (38.8 percent), while cities like Atlanta (57.2 percent) and Virginia Beach (52.4 percent) had the greatest well population.

Las Vegas also was named the third likliest city to have a population that succumbs to medical problems in the future. Cleveland and Chicago were the leaders on that list at about 17.4 percent apiece, while about 17.1 percent of Las Vegas' population is considered at risk.

People who were 35 or older who smoked cigarettes or were obese or anyone who has been diagnosed with hypertension, high cholesterol or diabetes were categorized as at risk by the survey.

The Health Network is a consumer-health organization featured on cable television and on the Internet. Its television station is fed to 17.5 million homes via cable and satellite. It's website (TheHealthNetwork.com) provides a health video library, hospital rankings, health news and health guides.

PHRG is an independent healthcare consulting and research firm that identifies health care service needs of a populations then designs and monitors health care services to meet those needs. Its clients include provider organizations, insurers, public health organizations, labor unions and employers.

Ronald Deprez, author of the report, is president and founder of PHRG. He provides consultation on the development and application of computerized health information for health service planning. The scale of his work ranges from rural hospitals to urban American regions to developing nations.

Deprez has a master's degree and doctorate in political science from Rutgers University and a master's of public health with a concentration on epidemiology from Harvard University School of Public Health.

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