Introduction
Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Smoking claims hundreds of thousands (480,000+) of people annually in the United States. The CDC provides a whole article explaining the effects of smoking and has ways on how to quit smoking, such as techniques and/or medicine. The Madison Borough Health Department is responsible for local public health efforts.
Data
The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducts a routine national survey known as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). The CDC provides us with a more generalized data about tobacco use in all of America.
Results
In Morris County, the estimated prevalence of smoking (%) was 9.8 with 95% CI ( 7.4, 13.0) in 2021. According to Census 2021 county population estimates, 511,151 people live in Morris County (2022). Compared to other counties, Morris County is with the lowest of smoking prevalence.
Conclusion
Understanding locational differences in smoking and access to care lends insight to local and county health departments to see where targeted interventions can work to reduce gaps in material access and health disparities.
Health measures are also valuable in an environmental sense as we gain a greater understanding of how our built and natural environments contribute to specific pathways of disease, poor health or resilience and good health.
About the Data
The CDC Places data sets are part of a series, spelling out the acronym as Place Level Analysis and Community Estimates. The latest estimates are for 2020 and 2021 for U.S. Census Tracts.
Other data sources visualized in the images here and on web maps are from the New Jersey Office of GIS (including County and Municipal Boundaries of New Jersey).
A webmap of the county level PLACES results can be found here:
A webmap of the census tract results for Madison can be found here:
