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The Central District Health Department's coverage area ranked second in the state for hospital discharge rates due to suicide attempts from 1999 to 2003.
The health department's coverage area, which includes Hall, Hamilton and Merrick counties, had a hospital discharge rate of 93 per 100,000 population for suicide attempts, just behind the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department's rate of 94.7 per 100,000.
Those numbers were released last week by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services as part of its injury report, which gives detailed statistics of injury rates statewide and in Nebraska's 20 individual health department service areas.
According to the report, injury is considered a public health problem in the Central District Health Department coverage area, as it is the fourth-leading cause of death following heart disease, cancer and stroke.
In Hall, Merrick and Hamilton counties from 1999-2003, 84 percent of all deaths among 15- to 19-year-olds and 80 percent of deaths among 20- to 24-year-olds were due to injuries.
The HHS injury report shows that, compared to other health departments, the Central District Health Department's coverage area isn't doing the best in the state when it comes to injuries. But it's not doing the worst, either, said Teresa Anderson, executive director of the CDHD.
In most injury categories, the CDHD area ranks in the middle of the state's health departments.
One area of concern, Anderson said, is the suicide attempt rate, which could be attributed in some degree to substance abuse.
"(We) will be researching it a little bit more to see if we can lend a hand to reduce that suicide attempt rate," she said.
The area's rate of deaths due to unintentional injuries in 2003 was higher than the state's rate in 2003, with 39.1 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 33.3 deaths per 100,000 in the state.
However, the CDHD area also had lower rates of injury deaths due to suicide and homicide compared to the rest of the state.
The CDHD area has not yet met the 2010 Nebraska Health Goals and Objectives for overall unintentional injury deaths or injury deaths caused by falls and motor vehicle accidents.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death in the CDHD coverage area, followed by falls and suicide. Falls were the leading cause of injury hospital discharges between 1999 and 2003.
Injury prevention is not one of the CDHD's target issues right now, Anderson said, but the health department will continue to watch for opportunities to address injury-related issues.
The health department is partnering with Grand Island's schools and the city to develop a "safe routes to school" campaign, she said. The project, which will tentatively start in the fall, will encourage middle-school students to walk or ride their bikes to school using safe routes and practices.
The program will include components of both injury prevention and increased physical activity.
The health department also works to educate the general population about the importance of seat-belt use, proper child safety-seat installation and household hazards that could cause falls, she said.
Within the next year or so, the CDHD will reprioritize its health issues, and at that point injury prevention may move farther up the priority list.
To view the complete injury report for Nebraska and local health department districts, visit www.dhhs.ne.gov/codes/InjuryReport Feb2008/.
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