WILTON – A new health assessment rates Franklin County a lot like the rest of Maine, with a few dangerous exceptions and a few success stories.

The 2003 Community Health Assessment was prepared by Dr. Kathleen Welch, an epidemiologist and senior evaluator for the Wilton-based Healthy Community Coalition. It focuses mostly on Franklin County but when feasible, includes data from Livermore and Livermore Falls as well as Dixfield, Starks, Fayette, Vienna and New Portland.

The study uses secondary data from a variety of federal and state sources, such as the U.S. Census, the Maine Department of Human Services and the Bureau of Health, as well as primary data from the annual coalition Farmington Fair Survey.

The most recent assessment was completed in 2000.

Welch, who moved to the area from New Orleans this past winter, said she is impressed with many of the numbers the county posted in regards to their physical health, as well as their wellness.

“This area is rich in so many ways,” she said, making reference to the abundance of arts and culture and social capital, which is measured by the volunteer force, neighborhood attachment and environment.

Welch was quick to point out how many of the county’s problems, such as high substance use among youth, are interrelated to a escalating problem, not just in Franklin County but statewide in HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and Hepatitis C cases.

Under the topic of youth substance abuse, 79 percent of high school students said it was “easy” or “very easy” to obtain marijuana, easier than alcohol or tobacco.

One out of every four 12th graders in the county smokes tobacco, the assessment said, and 36 percent of 11th graders report current marijuana use, compared to 26 percent in the nation and 34 percent of 11th graders also reported binge drinking in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, 24.2 percent of county residents are considered obese and 36 percent considered overweight. That’s higher or similar to state average of 20.1 percent obese and 36.6 percent overweight. Those numbers can be linked, Welch said, to the statistic that shows 14 percent of county residents report watching between three to five hours plus of television each day.

Nine percent of adult Mainers have asthma, the same percentage as Franklin County adults. That is attributed to strong weatherproofing, wood stoves and second-hand smoke, the study concludes.

Welch says that a high poverty rate in the county and unemployment rates a percentage higher (5.4 percent) than the state average of 4.4 percent also impacts the health and wellness.

Franklin County’s median household income level of $31,459 is nearly $6,000 below the state level and is over $10,000 below the national level.

–“Good news”–

There is some good news, the study said. In the coalition service area, 48 percent of 10th-graders in 2002 reported they had community opportunities for positive involvement, up slightly from 44 percent in 2000.

Franklin County showed reductions in tobacco use among all youth, the assessment ascertained. In 2002, 12 percent of youth in grades six to 12 smoked tobacco in the past month, compared to 20 percent in 2000.

Also, 92 percent of pregnant woman in the county reserve prenatal care in the first trimester and that the county continues to have one of the lowest rates of adolescent (age 10-17 years) birth in the nation.

To obtain a copy of the Community Health Assessment for 2003, contact the Healthy Community Coalition at 645-3136 or log on to www.fchn.org/hcc/.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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