Columbus Regional Health (CRH) has released the latest report of the Community Health Needs Assessment, which was conducted earlier this year by telephone and online between March and May 2024.

Responses to the survey, which are always completely anonymous, are collected and organized into a comprehensive report that outlines the current state of mental, physical, and behavioral health in the areas served by Columbus Regional Health. This year’s survey resulted in 1,058 responses, which exceeded the goal of 1,000 responses, and is the highest ever response rate in the history of this survey.

Information gathered in this survey helps CRH identify and address our region’s most critical community health issues. The survey was conducted by an independent, national organization called Professional Research Consultants (PRC). The Community Health Needs Assessment has been conducted every three years since 1996. It is a systematic, data-driven approach to determining the health status, behaviors, and needs of residents in the service area of Columbus Regional Health. The information gathered will be used to inform decisions and guide efforts by CRH and CRH’s Healthy Communities Initiative to improve community health and wellness, ensure adequate and equitable access to health services, and surface health disparities.

Some of the positive results and trends include:

 -- Barriers to Access prevented Medical Care – (% difficulty accessing care) levels lower than US, but have increased over time – currently 41.2% compared to 52.5% for US

 -- Low number of respondents reported lack of health insurance coverage – 5.9% compared to 8.8% for Indiana and 8.1% for the US

 -- Good breast cancer screening rates – 86.2% of women 50-74 have been screened for breast cancer (compares to 64% in US and 78.1% in Indiana)

 -- Increase in the % of children who are physically active for one or more hours per day – went from 42.8% in 2021 to 51.5% in 2024 – this compares to a rate of 27.4% nationally

There are also areas that indicate opportunities for improvement:

 -- Obesity continues to increase and has increased every survey since 1996. It now sits at 46.1% (up from 42.7% in 2021).

 -- Mental health continues to show room for improvement

• Low number of mental health providers compared to state and US
• High rate of depression
• High number of suicide deaths

  -        Substance use continues to show room for improvement

• Excessive drinking has decreased
• Unintentional drug-induced deaths have decreased, but still high
• High % say life has been negatively affected by substance use (though comparable to US rate)

PRC has presented the survey results to both the Healthy Communities Council, a coalition of community and business leaders who work together to guide local health strategy, and to CRH Leadership (including Executives and Medical Directors). PRC guided each group through a prioritization exercise to gain feedback about the severity of each area and our ability to make a positive impact. CRH Leadership and Healthy Communities staff will use the results of the prioritization exercises alongside the survey results in order to develop the 2026-28 community health strategy.

For more information visit: https://www.crh.org/community-foundation/healthy-communities