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Health

Overview
It is widely known that Americans’ health status has declined in some areas. Lincoln, like the U.S., is experiencing increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, and deaths due to heart disease or cancer. Lincoln, however, still has lower rates than the U.S. as a whole on many measures.

In Lincoln, there are geographic disparities in life expectancy. Census tracts with lower-than-average life expectancy are located near downtown where poverty is most prevalent. Additionally, mental health issues in Lincoln continue to require attention. The number of poor mental health days reported by Lancaster County and Nebraska residents has increased in the past decade since 2012, and suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Lancaster County. Furthermore, police investigations in Lincoln involving mental health needs have increased by 21% in recent years.

However, Lincoln has shown improvement in some areas. In the past 10 years, the rate of women with 10 or more prenatal visits has increased, and rates of low birth weight have decreased both nationally and in Lancaster County. Additionally, youth rates of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use has declined in recent years, and incidents involving alcohol and/or drugs requiring police response have decreased in Lincoln.

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Footnotes

  1. Sherry, M., Kochanek, K., Jiaquan, X., & Arias, E. (December, 2021). Mortality in the United States, 2020 (NCHS Data Brief no. 427). National Center for Health Statistics.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, April 28). About chronic diseases.
  3. Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index of 30 to 99.8 and is calculated based on responses to questions about height and weight.
  4. Diabetes rates are based in individual report that they have been diagnosed with diabetes.
  5. Physical inactivity is based on persons reporting no leisure-time physical activity in the past 30 days.
  6. Levine, David M., Landon, Bruce E., and Jeffrey A. Linder. (2019). Quality and experience of outpatient care in the United States for adults with or without primary care. JAMA Internal Medicine, 179(3) 363-372.
  7. Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (2021). Vital statistics: Birth data Lancaster County 2020.
  8. Martin, J. A., and Osterman, M. (2023). Changes in prenatal care utilization: United States, 2019-2021. National Vital Statistics Report, 75(4).
  9. Partridge, S., Balayla, J., Holcroft, C. A., & Abenhaim, H. A. (2012). Inadequate prenatal care utilization and risks of infant mortality and poor birth outcome: a retrospective analysis of 28,729,765 U.S. deliveries over 8 years. American journal of perinatology, 29(10), 787–793.
  10. Cutland, C., Lackritz, E., Mallett-Moore, T., Bardaji, A., Chandrasekaran, R., Lahariya, C., Imran Nisar, M., Tapia, M., Pathirana, J., Kochhar, S. & Muñoz, F. (2017). Low birth weight: Case definition & guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation of maternal immunization safety data. Vaccine, 35(48), 6492-6500.
  11. McCormick, Marie C. (1985) The contribution of low birth weight to infant mortality and childhood morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine 312:82-90.
  12. Kramer, M. S. (1987). Determinants of low birth weight: methodological assessment and meta-analysis. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 65(5), 663-737.
  13. Hoffman, S. D., & Maynard, R. A. (Eds.). (2008). Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy (2nd ed.). Urban Institute Press.
  14. Cutland, C., Lackritz, E., Mallett-Moore, T., Bardaji, A., Chandrasekaran, R., Lahariya, C., Imran Nisar, M., Tapia, M., Pathirana, J., Kochhar, S. & Muñoz, F. (2017). Low birth weight: Case definition & guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation of maternal immunization safety data. Vaccine, 35(48) 6492-6500.
  15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, September 8). Cannabis and public health: Cannabis and teens.
  16. National Institute of Mental Health. (2024, September). Mental illness.
  17. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 2018-2022 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2024. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2022, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on April 23, 2024.
  18. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (2023). Nebraska Vital statistics: Leading Causes of Death Dashboard.
  19. Minkoff, K. (2001). Developing standards of care for individuals with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders. Psychiatric Services, 52(5), 597-599.
  20. National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2006). Chronic Homelessness Brief. Washington, DC: National Alliance to End Homelessness.