Comprehensive Community Health Assessment of Queens, New York

This report presents a comprehensive community assessment of Queens, New York, analyzing secondary data to evaluate the region's health status. The assessment covers demographic information, including age, race, and gender distributions, along with key health indicators such as premature deaths, smoking rates, physical activity levels, and rates of sexually transmitted infections. The report identifies three major social determinants of health in Queens: poverty, unemployment, and inadequate education, highlighting their impacts on community well-being. Furthermore, the report discusses healthcare disparities, focusing on the scarcity of mental health providers, high rates of low-income and uninsured individuals. A community health diagnosis is provided, identifying excessive drug abuse and adult smoking as significant concerns. The report highlights the relationships between behaviors and health status, the role of integrated social determinants, and the need for addressing mental health, income inequality, and educational deficiencies to enhance community health outcomes. The report concludes with an overview of strategies implemented to improve health, emphasizing the importance of government and community collaboration.

Running head: COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT 1
Community Comprehensive Assessment in Queens New York
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT 2
Secondary Data Table
City/Town/Village Name: Queens State: New York Zip Code: 79 zipcodes Population:
2,293,000
County Statistics
Age Distribution
Under 29 years 39.6%
30-49years 24.3%
50-74 years 28.9%
Above 75 years 7.5%
Race/Ethnicity in %
white 27.7
African American 17
Hispanic 27.7
Asian 22
Premature deaths 75/100,000 population
Gender 49% males/ 51% women
Adult smoking 29%
Physical activity 20%
Excessive drinking 22%
Alcohol-Impaired Deaths 40 in 2016
Sexually Transmitted Infection 678 per 100,000 population
Teen Births 18%
Uninsured 9%
Primary care Physicians 70 per 100,000 population
Dentists 37 per 100, 000 population
Mental health providers 22 per 100 ,000 population
Preventable Hospital says 18%
Diabetic monitoring 8.8%
Mammography screening 72%
Social-economic factors High poverty levels in children
High school graduation 44% in 2018 committed to high school

COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT 3
Some college 15%have no diploma with 25years of age
Unemployment 19%
Children in poverty 15.2%
Income inequality 25%under the poverty line
Children in single parents 5600
Violent crimes 398 per 100,000population
Injury Deaths 567
Physical Environment N/A
Air pollution Emit 1.8 tones of air pollutants
Drinking-Water violation N/A
Severe housing problems 2,500
Driving alone to work 78.2%
Long commute 4.4%
Three social determinants of health in the County.
1. Poverty is one of the major social determinant of health in Queens affecting more than
15% of children and their families(York State Department of Health, 2014).
2. Unemployment is another major social determinant in the region where about 19%of the
youths are either not employed or looking for a job due to various circumstances(Weiss et
al., 2015).
3. Education is also not sufficient in the region and thus it may affect the outcomes of health
in the region. About 15% of people with 25 years have no college diploma and thus may
lack enough health literacy(York State Department of Health, 2014).
Three Healthcare Disparities.
1. The number of mental health providers per every 100,000 population is very minimal as
compared to other medical doctors(2016 COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS
ASSESSMENT, n.d.).

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2. There is a high percentage of low-income individuals in the community
3. the number of uninsured individuals is also high leading to a percentage of 9%(Weiss et
al., 2015)
Community Health Diagnosis.
The community has high levels of excessive drug abuse with 22%of the population subjected to
high alcohol intake leading to a high number of deaths as shown in the table above. Besides,
adults smoking cigarettes are equivalent to 29% of the total population(2016 COMMUNITY
HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT, n.d.).
Summary.
Health determinants are such factors that determine the health quality of a given society
or population leading to either negative or positive impacts(Richard et al., 2016). From the
above, in addition to substance abuse, three major health determinants have been identified
which include poverty, education, and employment. People who have high levels of education
have a high level of health literacy as they can understand risk and health information better and
thus are less prone to disease(Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, 2016). Other than that,
employment leads to low poverty levels as people will have high incomes to cater for better
health and nutrition thus they are less likely to get infections and other medical conditions.
Health disparities are the conditions that put a certain group of people in a community to be
disadvantaged when it comes to access to health care(Carod-Artal, 2017). For instance, in
Queens, there are less mental health specialists than other medical conditions and thus they are
likely to have lower chances of accessing quality care. Other than that, the number of individuals
in the county who are uninsured is high meaning they have difficulties in accessing Medicare

COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT 5
services. Looking at the percentage of people below the poverty line, unemployed and those with
low income the county needs to address such issues to reduce the health disparities. However,
substance abuse has been identified as the most immediate community diagnosis that should
address as the percentage per the affected population is high(QUEENS COMMUNITY NEEDS
ASSESSMENT APPENDIX A-MAPS, 2014). Drug abuse may lead to vast health problems and
affect other social determinants and health disparities highly than any other factor.
Key Points, relationships between behaviors and health status of the community and
leading health issues.
Generally, Queens has better health as compared to many of the counties ranking at
number 19 and also better than New York as Large(PLAN TO ENHANCE EQUITABLE CARE,
n.d.). Most of the health determinants of health and health disparities are integrated where if the
county can manage to address a few others can be fixed automatically. For instance, the county
has high levels of substance abuse which may have facilitated to a high number of mental health-
related admissions. Other than that, comparing the high mental health admissions and the low
number of physicians, the problem has become a burden. Other than that, the community has
high levels of income inequality, poor education, and unemployment. These factors are the major
contributors to poverty and poor health in the county(York State Department of Health, 2014).
Relating to a high number of substance abuse, one of the most major the above factors usually
lead to desperation to various people who may opt to take drugs thus leading to much worse
health outcomes. Such health outcomes as demonstrated from the table above include violent
crimes, school dropouts, and poor attitudes, accidents and finally leading to poor community
health quality.

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One of the major issues affecting the community of Queen is high levels of mentally ill patients.
This may due to high levels of substances abuse that probably might be caused by the vast
community social injustice the people of Queens experience(QUEENS COMMUNITY NEEDS
ASSESSMENT APPENDIX A-MAPS, 2014). However, Queens have developed various strategies
to deal with many health problems in the areas. This includes increasing health workforce,
especially in mental health, reducing crime rates, enhancing increase public awareness for the
importance of health insurance and educating the community through campaigning the effects of
drug abuse(QUEENS COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT APPENDIX A-MAPS, 2014).
In conclusion, Queens has a range of social determinants of health and health disparities
affecting almost 75% of the community. It is the responsibility of the local government together
with the community to enhance that adequate strategies are put into place to improve the health
and wellness of the individuals and their families.

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References.
2016 COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT. (n.d.).Retrieved from
https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/queens/community-health-needs-assessment-report/
Australian Institute of Health & Welfare. 4.1 Social determinants of health. , Australia’s Health
2016 § (2016).
Carod-Artal, F. J. (2017). Social determinants of mental health. In Global Mental Health:
Prevention and Promotion. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59123-0_4
PLAN TO ENHANCE EQUITABLE CARE. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Whitepaper_Equitable
Care.pdf
QUEENS COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT APPENDIX A-MAPS. (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/downloads/pdf/dsrip/Queens.pdf
Richard, L., Furler, J., Densley, K., Haggerty, J., Russell, G., Levesque, J. F., & Gunn, J. (2016).
Equity of access to primary healthcare for vulnerable populations: The IMPACT
international online survey of innovations. International Journal for Equity in Health,
15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0351-7
Weiss, L., Griffin, K., Chantarat, T., Abbott, S. A., Green, D., Philippou, C., … Shih, A. (2015).
Community Needs Assessment Overview City Voices: New Yorkers on Health Community
Needs Assessment Overview.
York State Department of Health, N. (2014). Community Needs Assessment for New York State
DSRIP Project Plan Application Advocate Community Providers (ACP) / New York
Community Preferred Providers.