Toledo no longer tops in smoking - And no, it's not due to the smoking ban, which started last August, because the most recent smoking survey was conducted in 2002. "The city has lost the dubious distinction of having the country's highest percentage of cigarette smokers, according to new federal data. A 2002 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention found that 20.8 % of Toledo-area residents smoke. That's a big drop from 2000, when the same survey showed that 31.2 % of Toledoans smoked."
Of course, the Blade opinion page has a thought about this latest 2002 finding.
"Frankly, the message from the CDC could not be more obvious: Something is at work in our community to convince people that they are slowly killing themselves if they continue smoking." (But a greater percentage of us are killing ourselves by eating junk food.)
"And what is at work is, first, a steady drumbeat of public education by health officials, and second, an uncommon display of courage by Toledo's elected officials, who collectively saw a community health hazard and moved to fix it." (That means government abuse by interferring with the freedoms of private business owners.)
"We can't imagine why any city or government entity would hesitate, given Toledo's experience. Show them the ban, then show them the CDC's newest survey." (The two are not even related. This opinion writer is not dealing with reality. Like that's a shock. The latest survey came before the ban.)
posted by jr to health at 8:03 P.M. EST
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Hard to trust surveys, since the data can be skewed if a representative sample is not used. Focus more on a certain demographic, and different results are obtained. How are we to know? From a Friday Blade article titled "Lucas County health data questioned."
"Some results of a $70,000 study about the health of Lucas County residents released yesterday could be skewed because the Toledo firm that conducted the polling admittedly may have surveyed too many low-income residents."
"The true percentage of Lucas County adults who smoke and the number of county residents who do not have health-care benefits are two of the findings called into question from a survey by Great Lakes Marketing of 2,000 county residents age 19 or older conducted in July, 2003."
"The "Healthy Lucas County" survey - about half of which was funded by taxpayers - reported that 37 percent of county adults smoke compared to 27 percent in 1999. The number of adults without health insurance in Lucas County also was reported to have increased from 11 percent in 1999 to 24 percent in 2003."
"But Dr. Robert Indian, an Ohio Department of Health expert who oversees federal health surveys in the state, said he was skeptical of the results because they conflict with previously released data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control."
"When the CDC surveyed Lucas County in 2000, it found 30 percent of adults smoke. In 2002, the CDC found 28 percent of adults smoke, Dr. Indian said. "I honestly believe that’s the best estimate [of smokers] for Lucas County," he said. Fewer people might be smoking or, just as likely, there probably was no change at all from 2000 to 2002 or even much change in 2003 because the two CDC percentages are so close, he said."
"Dr. Dixon [owner of Great Lakes] pointed out that most of her firm’s findings mirror the CDC’s survey. For example, the CDC and her firm both found that 29 percent of Lucas County adults are obese and were almost the same on diabetes prevalence (8 percent according to the CDC, and 10 percent according to Great Lakes). In addition, Great Lakes found that 19 percent of adults in Lucas County binge-drink, compared to an 18 percent finding by CDC."
"John Zogby, president of the national polling firm Zogby International, said that based on a description of Great Lakes’ survey methodology, he doubts the results are scientifically valid."
posted by jr at 02:11 A.M. EST on Sun Jan 25, 2004 #
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