Grant Co. health report highlights disease and mortality rates

MOSES LAKE — Life expectancy in Grant County went down in 2020, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and life expectancy in Grant County was lower than the statewide average in 2020. Statistics on life expectancy were among the information included in the “Community Health Assessment” released by the Grant County Health District on Friday.

The assessment evaluated health information in a variety of areas, behaviors that improve health or contribute to disease, county demographics and trends, health trends that concern residents, alongside diseases and behaviors that affect the health of county residents, among many other things.

The GCHD used data from local and state sources, and conducted surveys and focus groups throughout the county, according to the assessment report.

An evaluation of life expectancy was among the results, and for 2020 average life expectancy in Grant County was 78.1 years. Statewide it was 79.9 years. Life expectancy is the number of years a person can expect to live if contemporary mortality rates continue.

The county’s mortality rate also is higher than the state average; for Grant County, it was 781 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 698 per 100,000 people. The mortality rate measures deaths that occur from all causes, and is adjusted by age to allow for comparisons between areas with different age distributions, the report said.

The assessment evaluates reported COVID-19 cases between April 1, 2020, and September 2023; for that period, Grant County’s case rate was higher than the state average. The case rate was 33,777 per 100,000 residents in Grant County, compared to the state average of 25,486 per 100,000 people. 

Grant County had 33,011 reported cases of coronavirus in that period. Of those, 271 were fatal.

“The disparity may be due to lower vaccinations in Grant County or less access to healthcare,” the report said. 

The leading causes of death in 2020 were heart disease, cancer, COVID-19 and accidents, according to the report. More Grant County residents were hospitalized for heart disease than the state average between 2016 and 2020, with more men than women requiring hospitalization.

Breast, lung and uterine cancer were the leading types of cancer occurring among women in that time, with prostate, lung and bladder cancer the leading types among men. The highest mortality rates were for lung, colon and pancreatic cancer.

Youth obesity was higher than the state average for eighth graders, sophomores and seniors, and adult obesity in Grant County also was higher than the state average. But diabetes, at least among people reporting the diagnosis, was slightly lower in Grant County than the state.

Grant County had a lower rate than the state average of car accidents involving drivers impaired by alcohol or other substances and of collisions involving bicycles or pedestrians. But the county had a higher rate of collisions and accidents involving teen drivers, and the number of fatalities was above the state average. 

From 2016 to 2020 the state had a higher rate of deaths due to drowning than Grant County, adjusted for age. In Grant County, the group most at risk for drowning were people 15 to 24 years of age. The report said 287 Grant County residents had falls that resulted in injury in the same time period; the group most at risk for serious falls were people 65 years of age and older.

Birth rates were measured over the 10-year period from 2010 to 2020. In that time the birth rate fell, both in Grant County and statewide. Grant County’s birth rate is higher than the state average, however. 

The number of premature births (babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) was higher for Hispanic women in Grant County than for white women between 2011 and 2020. The county’s overall premature birth rate was the same as the statewide rate.

“Sexually transmitted diseases, chlamydia and gonorrhea, are the most common reportable conditions in Grant County and the state by far,” the assessment report said. “The majority of the top 10 are foodborne diseases or sexually transmitted infections.”

A reportable condition is a disease or illness that must be reported to local or state health officials. Of those diseases and illnesses, Grant County has lower rates than the state average, except for pertussis (whooping cough) and mumps, the report said.

Four cases of tuberculosis were reported in Grant County between 2012 and 2021. 

“Because tuberculosis is contagious and the mortality rate for untreated tuberculosis is 50%, each new case requires significant follow-up and contact tracing to determine who else may have been exposed,” the report said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.