Just how healthy is the Tampa Bay area?

By Letitia Stein, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Apr 10, 2011 05:56 PM

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If you live in the Tampa Bay area, you're more likely to die in a car wreck or of smoking-related cancer than most other Americans.

On the bright side, you're less likely to die after a stroke. And we're just a touch thinner than the national average.

So overall, how healthy are we? In a new ranking of Florida's counties, researchers placed Tampa Bay's health around the middle of the pack.

More details can be found in another new report by the Tampa Bay Partnership, which promotes economic development. The group assessed health indicators from recent years and found considerable room for improvement. Our smoking rates are declining, but not as fast as the rest of the country.

Our diabetes rates are rising and already outpace the rest of the country.

And despite the region's reputation for sunshine and good times, the suicide rate here is 38 percent higher than the national average.

The partnership didn't analyze the reasons behind the data, but that's coming next. "You can only start improving if you know where you are," said Steve Mason, BayCare Health System chief executive and chairman of the One Bay initiative.

How Tampa Bay stacks up

Auto accidents

We're almost twice as likely to die in auto accidents as those in the rest of the nation, underscoring the need to examine the safety of our roads and sidewalks. The latest annual death rates, given as fatalities per 100,000 residents:

Hillsborough: 12

Pinellas: 11

Pasco: 19

Hernando: 15

Tampa Bay: 14

U.S.: 7

Obesity

We're growing larger, and nearly 40 percent of Tampa Bay residents say they don't exercise regularly. Obesity is linked to a rise in diabetes and other serious conditions. Here is the percentage of adults who are overweight or obese:

Hillsborough: 64

Pinellas: 63

Pasco: 58

Hernando: 62

Tampa Bay: 62

U.S.: 63

Lung cancer

We're more likely to die from smoking-related cancers, and the decline in smoking rates here lags behind the rest of the nation. In Hernando and Pasco counties, almost 30 percent of adults smoke, compared with 22 percent in Tampa Bay and 20 percent nationally. Here

are annual lung cancer deaths

per 100,000 residents:

Hillsborough: 55

Pinellas: 58

Pasco: 62

Hernando: 64

Tampa Bay: 56

U.S.: 23

Stroke deaths

We're more likely to survive a stroke than the national average, although experts say the reasons are unclear. Here are stroke deaths per 100,000 residents a year.

Hillsborough: 42

Pinellas: 35

Pasco: 33

Hernando: 31

Tampa Bay: 35

U.S.: 44

Sexually transmitted diseases

We're reporting fewer cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis — but sexually transmitted diseases are being spread faster in the Tampa Bay region. Here are annual cases per 100,000 residents:

Hillsborough: 717

Pinellas: 585

Pasco: 208

Hernando: 210

Tampa Bay: 514

U.S.: 528

Violent crimes

Tampa Bay is a dangerous place to live. We're more likely to be victims of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Here are annual crimes, per 100,000 residents:

Tampa Bay: 622

U.S. 455

Bottom line: How healthy are we, Tampa Bay?

In a national report on community health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently ranked Florida's 67 counties.

Tampa Bay's communities were in the middle of the pack.

Hillsborough: 30th

Pinellas: 28th

Pasco: 40th

Hernando: 41st

Sources: Tampa Bay Partnership; county health rankings published by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

[Last modified: Apr 11, 2011 11:22 AM]