Susan Burnette of Person Family Medical and Dental Centers and the Healthy Personians team delivered a synopsis of the 300-page CHA during Monday’s meeting of the Person Board of County Commissioners.

She stated that, according to data gathered for the CHA, the leading causes of death in Person County between 2001 and 2005 were heart disease; total cancer; cerebrovascular disease or stroke; chronic lower respiratory disease; unintentional non-motor vehicle injury; unintentional motor vehicle injury; diabetes; pneumonia and influenza; kidney disease and suicide.

According to statistics, Burnette said, the overall death rate for males in Person County was 57 percent higher than the overall death rate for females between 2001-2005.

Death rates in Person County are higher among males than among females for heart disease; total cancer; cerebrovascular disease; chronic lower respiratory disease; unintentional non-motor vehicle injury; unintentional motor vehicle injury and suicide.

For all causes of death, the total death rate among Person County minorities for 2001-2005 was 13 percent higher than the overall death rate for whites.

Between 2000 and 2004, 936 newly diagnosed cases of all cancers were reported in Person County. Of the total, there were 160 cases of prostate cancer; 147 of breast cancer; 131 of lung cancer and 90 diagnoses of colorectal cancer.

The incidence rate for all cancer from 2000-2004 in Person County, 462.8, was above the average rate for North Carolina at 452.1.

Cancer of all types was the second leading cause of death among Person County residents, resulting in 436 deaths from 2001-2005.

The death rate for all cancers in the county (217.0) for that period was above the state average of 197.7.

Lung, prostate, colorectal and breast cancers were the leading cancers “by site” during that time period, according to the latest CHA.

The study also found that 39 percent of Person County adults were obese, compared to 27 percent of adults in North Carolina. Also, 36 percent of Person County adults were overweight, compared to 36.2 percent statewide.

The CHA concluded that 24.3 percent of Person County adults were at the recommended weight as compared to 35.1 percent of adults in North Carolina.

The report also found that 15.2 percent of children between two and four-years-old in Person County are overweight, which is on par with the state’s figures.

Among five to 11-year-olds, 37.3 percent in Person County were overweight, which is much higher than the 25.2 percent statewide.

Nearly half of all county 12 to 18-year-olds — 46.7 percent — were overweight. This figure is also above the state’s percentage of 29.5.

Deaths due to diabetes have been rising in both Person County and the state, nearly doubling on both levels since the early 1980s. Between 2001 and 2005 there were 55 deaths due to diabetes in Person County.

Between 2001 and 2005 there were 34 deaths due to suicide in Person County. This puts the county suicide death rate above the state rate. Suicide mortality rates for Person County have remained above the state rate since 1979. The source for these figures was the North Carolina state Center for Health Statistics.

Data from the Community Health Assessment was used to establish the following health priorities for the county and the Healthy Personians Partnership for the next four years, until the next community health assessment is conducted. The 2008-2012 Health Priorities for Person County are: chronic disease; heart disease; cancer; stroke; diabetes; chronic lower respiratory disease.

The entire report can be found at http://health.personcounty.net. An executive summary will be released this spring.

The North Institute for Public Health contracted with Healthy Personians to mine the secondary statistics for the CHA with their primary source being the North Carolina Center for Health Statistics.

Primary data was collected through a random sampling survey of the community that was performed in early 2007.