Environmental Health Assessment: 01609

Environmental Health Assessment: 01609

Introduction

• Environment conducive to health and well-being, both physically and psychologically
• Desirable living condition, clean streets
• Plenty of pubic areas, restaurants
• Heart conditions, infant mortality significant
• Incidences of poverty

Industry: Past

Food

History and Geography

Community Diagnosis/Interventions

• 19th century Worcester: Textile mills were the main industry.
• Manufactured machines
• Thread and cloth
• Corduroy, wire, nails, paper
• Posed a threat of pollution during the time period
• Transportation hub in the industrial era.
• The Providence-to-Worcester Blackstone Canal- 1828
• Railroad connecting Worcester and Boston- 1835

Population Statistics

Risk for communicable disease spread related to crowded living conditions as evidenced by multiple housing buildings in close

proximity in downtown area.

Primary prevention: Education

• health risks factors r/t crowded living condition
• spread of communicable diseases/infections
• chain of transmission/how to protect oneself
• importance of prevention: vaccination/ proper hand washing

Secondary Prevention

• Routine screenings of at risk population for common communicable diseases related to crowded living
• Effectively treating the infected
• reporting the infectious diseases
• investigating contacts/finding new cases
• quarantining/ isolating infected people

Tertiary Prevention

• Helping patients adhere to the ordered drug regimen
• Enourage caregivers to continue to use precautions

• Farmer's Market
• Community garden available
• A variety of food options from 48 different culturally diverse restaurants
• Restaurants are located mainly in downtown
• Mostly local community owned businesses

(Google Maps, 2017)

• Known as the “heart of the commonwealth.”
• Town of Worcester established in 1722
• Declared a city in 1848
• About 40 miles west of Boston
• Many hills that overlook the Blackstone River
• 473 miles above sea level

• Population of Worcester, MA: 183,016 (2014)
• About 4,759 people per square mile
• Population of 01609: 22, 241
• Average age of residents is 28.5 years old
• People age 20-24 years old make up most of the population
• Caucasians: 16,467 people
• Hispanic or Latino: 4,083
• African American: 1,984 people.
• Veterans: 1,025

(Nies & McEwen, 2015)

(Sloan et al., 2015)

(Worcester Historical Museum, 2013)

Macalpine, 2017

Health Statistics

(City Data, 2017)

Industry: Present

Community Diagnosis/Interventions

Soucy, 2017

• Injury Deaths: 329
• Poisonings accounted for 28%
• 20% of them were Motor Vehicle related
• Mortality: 9.8 per 100,000
• Homicides : 1.7 per 100,000 deaths
• Suicide rates are among the highest in Mass
• 7.2 per 100,000 (state avg: 6.6)
• Firearm mortality 3.1 per 100,000
• Fall related injuries
• 2,146 per 100,000
• This is lower than the state avg of 2,275
• HIV incidence: 8.3
• Lower than the state avg of 12.7
• Mortality rate for HIV/AIDS:
• 2.9 per 100,000
• Asthma rates is highest in the state at 11.6
• Pediatric prevalence is 9.8

(City Data, 2017)

History and Geography

Macalpine, 2017

(United States Census Bureau, 2010)

Housing

(Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2007)

Risk for violence r/t to low income as evidenced by a significant number

of the population living below poverty level reported by the United

States Census Bureau report.

Primary Prevention

• Fostering increased awareness of violence
• Educate the population about problems concerning violence
• Offering training on anger management and conflict resolution/de-escalation
• Offering mentoring/peer programs to promote healthy relationships
• starting at at young age- and continuing throughout adulthood

Secondary Prevention

• Treating injuries
• Providing physical and emotional support, counseling
• Providing a 24 hour abuse hotline number
• Interprofessional team (social workers, police, and protective services)

Tertiary Prevention

• Encouraging use of community resources: anger management classes
• Exploring access to legal options for victims

• Known for its historic buildings from the colonial-era
• First influenza epidemic in 1918
• in 4 months there were 6,884 reported cases of influenza and pneumonia
• resulting in 1,294 deaths

• Known for business in research and technology
• Also becoming a well-known education center
• industries and businesses:
• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Food services
• Wholesale
• Retail trade
• Transportation and administrative facilities.
• Industries in this area do not appear to be causing a lot of pollution

• Windshield survey: WPI, Becker, and Assumption College
• Worcester Art Museum
• American Antiquarian Society
• Various temples and churches
• Jewish Healthcare Center

Macalpine, 2017

Dumas, 2017

Soucy, 2017

(University of Michigan, 2017)

(Nies & McEwen, 2015)

(Slabbert, 2016)

Population Statistics

Health Statistics

(City Data, 2017)

• Total housing units 8,170
• Occupied housing 7,049
• Vacant houses 1,121
• 50% of houses built in 1939 or earlier
• Owner-occupied housing 2,783
• Renter-occupied housing 4,266
• Majority of houses are well maintained
• Mostly single family homes
• Median house value of $292,000
• House larger further from downtown

History and Geography

Morrison, 2017

Macalpine, 2017

References

• Infant mortality:
• 13.9 per 1,000 births
• Heart Disease Mortality:
• 196.8 per 100,000 (state average is 182.5)
• Diabetes Mortality:
• 22.6 per 100,000 (state average is 18.4)
• Cancer Mortality:
• Colorectal- 18.3 per 100,000
• Breast- 23.2 per 100,000
• Prostate- 27.7 per 100,000
• Lung- 55.4 per 100,00
• Drug and Alcohol use:
• Tobacco- 21.2%
• Illicit drugs- 7. 2%
• Binge Drinking- 15.8%

• <50% of the population are paid employees
• People 16+ years are about 53% of those employed
• 25.7% live below the poverty
• Average household income is $43,729.
• The average household size is 2.34.
• About 80.7% is a high school graduate/ college graduate
• 2 to 3 bedroom apartments and single family homes
• Rent: 4,266 Own: 2,783
• Few of these houses have no plumbing or kitchen facilities (35 and 95)
• There are 6 low income housing complexes available

Built Environment

History and Geography

• 01609 encompasses the area of Salisbury Street, part of Highland Street and Pleasant Street, and a small portion of Park Ave
• Major landmarks
• Worcester Art Museum
• Assumption College
• Becker College
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
• Jewish Healthcare Center

Image References

City Data. (2017). Worcester. Retrieved from

http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Northeast/Worcester.html

Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (2007). Regional health status indicators

Massachusetts. Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/research-epi/central-region-report.pdf

Nies, M.A., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community public health nursing (6th ed.). St. Louis, MS:

Elsevier.

Slabbert, I. (2016). Domestic violence and poverty. Research on Social Work Practice,

27(2), 223-230. Doi: 10.1177/1049731516662321

Sloan, C., Chandrasekhar, R., Mitchel, E., Schaffner, W., & Lindegren, M. L. (2015).

Socioeconomic disparities and influenza hospitalizations, Tennessee, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 21(9), 1602-1610. Doi: 10.3201/eid2109.141861

United States Census Bureau. (2010). American fact finder: 01609. Retrieved from

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml

University of Michigan Center for the History and Medicine and Michigan Publishing.

(2017). The American influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Influenza Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-worcester.html#

Worcester Historical Museum. (2013). Worcester’s industrial heritage. Retrieved from:

http://www.worcesterhistory.org/worcesters-history/worcesters-industrial-heritage

01609. (n.d.). USZip.com. Retrieved from http://www.uszip.com/zip/01609.

(United States Census Bureau, 2015).

AirNow. (2017). Current AQI [Photograph]. Retrived from

https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=75

Dumas, K. (2017, September 20). Team 01609 [Photograph].

Google Maps. (2017). Worcseter, MA 01609 [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/maps/place/Worcester,+MA+01609/@42.2845729,-71.8450619,14.54z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e406e642533d23:0x5f0997b9110c189!8m2!3d42.2971508!4d-71.8393443

Macalpine, A. (2017, September 20). Elm park elementary school [Photograph].

Macalpine, A. (2017, September 20). Downtown 01609 [Photograph].

Morrison, J. (2017, September 20). Elm park elementary school [Photograph].

Soucy, M. (2017, September 20). Murals [Photograph].

Soucy, M. (2017, September 20). Salisbury street [Photograph].

• 4 seasons:
• The average temperature in the winter is 23.3 degrees Fahrenheit
• The average temperature in the summer 69.9 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 47.60 inches of rain annually
• 67.4 inches of snow

(Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2007)

(United States Census Bureau, 2010)

(City Data, 2017)

Air Quality Index

• Welcoming neighborhood
• Lots of trees and green areas
• Community public parks
• Many options for public transportation available (buses, Uber, and taxi)
• Adequate sidewalks and crosswalks
• Limited bicycle lane path
• Roads in good working conditions
• Traffic lights properly placed
• Community evenly serviced
• Five schools (public & privite)
• Murals

(City Data, 2017)

("AirNow.gov," 2017)