Health District Unveils Community Health Data Snapshot For Residents

New dashboard gives public key data about health in Washoe County

Reno, Nev. Dec. 9, 2019. The Washoe County Health District (WCHD) is proud to unveil its new health Data Snapshot, which gives everyone access to information and insights about the health trends and statistics in Washoe County.

“This WCHD Data Snapshot is an important tool for the community,” said Kevin Dick, Washoe County District Health Officer. “Every three years, we develop a Community Health Needs Assessment that allows us to focus on the health issues affecting Washoe County residents. This tool will allow anyone access to a trove of data organized around specific aspects of our community’s health with an explanation of the significance of the data and how it impacts our health.”

The Data Snapshot can be found here.

The information gathered helps residents learn more about how our environment, our social context and our behaviors impact our health.

For example, on the Social Determinants page, you can unpack social factors such as income and poverty and how both can affect a person’s opportunity for good health. That specific data shows the percentage of Washoe County residents who have graduated high school or college, the current unemployment rate, median home and rent values, and the percentage of people who are homeless.

The Staying Healthy page shows the percentage of uninsured children, those who use tobacco, and how prevalent diabetes, obesity and respiratory disease are in the community.

The Living Longer page has stats on violent crime rate, adults who binge drink and suicide rates.

“The District Board of Health often uses health data to make key decisions on funding of County health initiatives and knows the importance of that data,” said John Novak, DMD, Chairman of the District Board of Health. “The Washoe County Health District Data Snapshot has much of the information we collect in order to accomplish our mission. It is an extremely powerful tool that everyone can use to learn about health trends in our community. We highly recommend people spend time with it to better understand the health of our community.”

Media: This tool can be especially powerful for media looking for data to supplement their stories. For help finding specific information, please contact Scott Oxarart at 775-328-2414 or soxarart@washoecounty.us