Crow Wing County Community Health Survey Results
Moving Towards a Healthier Crow Wing County
Every three years, Essentia Health conducts a survey of adults in Crow Wing County. In 2021, the survey was developed by Crow Wing Energized, Cuyuna Reginal Medical Center and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). It was mailed to 4,000 addresses in Crow Wing County. A total of 957 surveys came back for a 23.9% percent response rate, a statistically sound sampling which was adjusted to get a representative of the adult population of the county.
In comparison to the 2017 survey, results continue to show that almost 90% of the adults in Crow Wing County feel their health is good to excellent. But when they report their actual health conditions, what we find in reality is that 64% of the population is overweight or obese, and 33% have high blood pressure, 27% high cholesterol, 27% arthritis, 19% depression, 17% panic attacks and 15% diabetes. Results also indicated that 62% of all adults are not eating five or more fruits or vegetables a day, nor are they getting the recommended physical activity.
Tobacco use reported an improvement from 23.3% to 16.6.% over the past 3 years. Current cigarette smokers who are trying to quit decreased to 39% compared to 44% in 2018 and 71% in 2014. Tobacco users report higher rates of obesity, depression, and anxiety.
Crow Wing Energized will be studying the feedback and developing healthy strategies to overcome these obstacles. There are already a variety of evidence based programs underway, such as the National Diabetes Prevention Program, that with time should make a difference to our adult population in Crow Wing County.
If you would like to learn more about Crow Wing Energized, contact Karen Johnson at Karen.Johnson@EssentiaHealth.org.
NOTEWORTHY FINDINGS:
More than 1 in 4 (26.3%) adults in Crow Wing County have been told by a health professional that they have a mental illness, a decrease from 28.2% in the 2017 survey. Depression and anxiety are more common than diabetes.
More than half of all adults in Crow Wing County (53%) report that they experience zero days where their mental health was not good, this shows an improvement over the 2017 survey which showed 63%.
Almost 1 in 4 (19%) people reported a delay in care for a medical condition over the past twelve months. This was improvement over 2017 which showed 21% of adults delaying care for a medical condition over a twelve month period.
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
Survey instrument: slightly modified from 2017 version, which was developed by Crow Wing Energized and MDH with assistance from Essentia Health, Crow Wing County Community Health and Cuyuna Regional Medical Center.
Probability sample; two-stage sampling strategy used
Address-based sampling; “most recent birthday” method of within-household respondent selection
Mail survey: survey packets mailed to 4,000 Crow Wing County addresses
Two copies of scannable questionnaire sent with postcard reminder in between
957 completed surveys received; 23.9% response rate
Data statistically weighted to account for sample design and differential response by gender and age
