Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Employment And Economic Development In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Wealth influences a person’s health. People who are higher on the socioeconomic scale tend to have better health outcomes. To improve the health of a community, it is important to understand the employment opportunities of the people living in the community.

Southern Nevada’s economy was hit hard between 2008 and 2012. Unemployment rates in the region exceeded national and peer regions between during this time period. Construction; leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; and professional and business service sectors experienced the greatest job loss during the recession. The Education and Health Services sectors did not experience a decrease in …

Healthcare Access And Health Outcomes In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

In a publication from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, it was recognized that a person’s zip code was a more important predictor of health than their genetic code. Where we live influences not only our access to health care, but other health indicators as well. Clark County has a low primary care physician to population ratio compared to other counties in Nevada and in the US. Clark County also has highest rates of uninsured in the Mountain West and among the highest in the nation.

Southern Nevada fared worse than other Mountain West Metropolitan areas in health indicators and preventative …

Demographic Makeup And Population Projections For Southern Nevada: Understanding The Emerging Healthcare Needs In Our Community, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Even with a leveling-off of population growth from 2008 to 2011, Southern Nevada had one of the fastest growing populations in the nation over the past decade. While population growth is projected to increase for the next ten years, the rate of growth will be slower than in the past decade. The Hispanic population, as a percentage of the total population, is projected to surpass the White population somewhere near the year 2030. The Southern Nevada population is aging, as the median age in the region increased between 2000 and 2010. The 65+ age group is projected to increase as …

Building A Sustainable Community Through Public Engagement: A Study Of Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

This manuscript is the first of a series written for the Nevada Journal of Public Health. The series is result of research conducted for the Southern Nevada Strong, Sustainable Communities Grant. During Year One of the planning process, we created a Southern Nevada Existing Conditions Report. This report highlighted where the region stood on key metrics including: demographics and population projections, access to healthcare and health outcomes, healthy community, housing, environment, economy and education. For this special issue of the Nevada Journal of Public Health, the report was separated into seven articles related to each of these metrics. The articles …

Refining Best Practices For The Diagnosis Of Autism: A Comparison Between Individual Healthcare Practitioner Diagnosis And Transdisciplinary Assessment., Jessica Rae Stewart, Debra C. Vigil, Erika Ryst, Wei Yang

Nevada Journal of Public Health

The purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic decision-making of individual healthcare practitioners against that of a transdisciplinary team. Despite national recognition of transdisciplinary assessment as the gold standard diagnostic approach, autism is most frequently diagnosed by individuals working independently in a variety of disciplines. The current study examined how closely these individual practitioners make diagnoses matching that of a transdisciplinary team. Twenty professionals from five different disciplines viewed videotape clips of fifteen children previously assessed by a transdisciplinary team. Results confirmed that individual healthcare practitioners matched the transdisciplinary team diagnosis on average only 65.6% of the time. …

Environmental Correlates Of Physical Activity Among African-American Adults, Tim Bungum, Jennifer Pharr, Paulo S. Pinheiro, Maria Azzarelli

Nevada Journal of Public Health

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify perceived environmental correlates of meeting physical activity guidelines among African-American adults living in Southern Nevada. Trained interviewers phoned potential participants who lived in the 12 zip codes of Clark County, Nevada with the highest proportions of African-American residents. Respondents (n=237) answered 52 health-related and demographic questions. Slightly less than 50% of participants met physical activity guidelines. A factor analysis procedure produced two environmental variables, neighborhood safety and environmental supports for physical activity. Age, gender and educational attainment (p<.05) predicted the meeting of those guidelines (R2=.214), while neighborhood support for physical activity, neighborhood safety, and BMI failed to do so. This finding suggests that environmental factors are not strong predictors of physical activity among African- American adults, although environmental supports for physical activity approached significance. Future studies should consider assessing additional aspects of the built environment as an influence on physical activity.