IV. Health Status Indicators

The health status of the population is an important component in identifying the ongoing needs of the community in regard to its future health care delivery system. The first step is to identify the current health problems and develop appropriate strategies to deal with these health problems. There are a number of measures of health status including rates of infectious disease, leading causes of death, birth characteristics, behavioral risk factors such as alcohol-related traffic accidents and seat belt usage and preventive care such as immunization rates for children.

A. Birth Characteristics

A ten-year birth trend for Lompoc is shown in Table 4.1 and graphically illustrated in Exhibit 4.1. During this period, the birth rate has fluctuated, peaking at 21.1 births per thousand population in 1990, and decreasing to 15.3 births per 1,000 population in 1995. The trend for Lompoc reflects the California trend except that the downward trend decreased more rapidly for Lompoc from 1990 to 1995.

Exhibit 4.1: Births per 1,000 population

Source: California Vital Statistics, 1993-1995

As Table 4.2 demonstrates, the highest birth rate for Lompoc occurs for women between the ages of 20 and 34. This represents approximately 84% of total Lompoc births compared to 86% of total California births for the same age category. Table 4.3 shows that almost half of all Lompoc births were from Caucasian mothers in 1995, followed by Hispanic mothers at 37.5%. The reverse is more reflective of California where 35.6% of the mothers are Caucasian and 45.9% Hispanic. African American mothers represent 6.2% of all births for Lompoc and 7.3% for California, while other Asian mothers account for 4.7% of Lompoc births and 4.5% statewide.

The percentage of births to teen mothers has been on the rise both in Lompoc and the State of California. Table 4.4 and Exhibit 4.2 shows that the percentage of births to teens has risen from 10.0% in 1985 to 14.2% in 1995 while increasing from 10.7% to 12.4% state-wide during the same period. Table 4.5 illustrates that the greatest percentage of these teen births is from mothers of Hispanic origin for both Lompoc and California.

Exhibit 4.2: Teen Births as Percentage of Total Births

Source: California Vital Statistics, 1993-1995

Table 4.5: 1995 Teen Births by Ethnicity/Race Group

Lompoc California # Births % of Total Births # Births % of Total Births African American 6 0.6% 7,626 1.4% Southeast Asian 1 0.1% 749 0.1% Caucasian 42 4.4% 14,988 2.7% Hispanic 75 7.9% 41,814 7.6% Native American Indian 0 - 554 0.1% Other Asian 10 1.1% 1,064 0.2% Other ** 1 0.1% 1,350 0.2%

Source: CA Department of Health Services - Vital Statistics Section ** Other includes those responses which stated they were multi-racial, multi-ethnic mix or if they are Mexican, Cuban or Puerto Rican.

Because out-of-wedlock birth data collected by the state comes from birth certificates with parents using different last names and from those with no father listed, the data in the Tables that follow may not accurately represent births to un-wed mothers.

As a percent of total births, Table 4.6 shows that out-of-wedlock births are lower in Lompoc than the state as a whole. Of these births, as illustrated in Exhibit 4.3, a majority are from mothers between the ages of 20 and 35. Table 4.7 shows that 11.6% of Caucasian births in Lompoc occur to unmarried women; comparable out-of-wedlock birth rates are 11.6% and 0.3% for Hispanic women and Native American women, respectively.

Exhibit 4.3: 1995 Out-of-Wedlock Births by Mother's Age

Source: Employment Development Department, Labor

Table 4.7: 1995 Births Out-of-Wedlock by Ethnicity/Race of Mother

Lompoc California # Births % of Total Births # Births % of Total Births African American 26 2.7% 24,697 4.5% Southeast Asian   0.0% 1,597 0.3% Caucasian 95 10.0% 44,950 8.1% Hispanic 110 11.6% 97,886 17.7% Native American Indian 2 0.3% 1,366 0.2% Other Asian 2 0.2% 1,367 0.2% Other ** 3 0.3% 4,523 0.8%

Source: CA Department of Health Services - Vital Statistics Section **Other includes those responses which stated they were multi-racial, multi-ethnic mix or if they are Mexican, Cuban or Puerto Rican.

Lompoc has historically had a smaller low birth weight rate than the State of California. In 1995 however, the Lompoc rate is slightly above the California rate of 6%. Low birth weight is one of the most common causes of infant morbidity and mortality and can inhibit normal early childhood development. Education of mothers and early prenatal care is crucial to reducing the percentage of low birth weight babies, infant mortality and child development problems. The statistics for low birth weight babies by age of mother and by race and ethnicity follow the same trend as the general birth population, with mothers age 20-35 having the highest percentage of low weight births.

Exhibit 4.4: 1995 Percentage of Low Birth Weight Babies by Mother's Age

Source: CA Dept. of Health Services, Vital Statistic

Table 4.9: 1995 Low Birth Weight Babies by Ethnicity/Race of Mother

Lompoc California # Births % of Total Births # Births % of Total Births African American 6 0.6% 4,734 0.9% Southeast Asian 0 0.0% 718 0.1% Caucasian 33 3.5% 10,870 2.0% Hispanic 14 1.5% 13,721 2.5% Native American Indian 0 0.0% 182 0.0% Other Asian 3 0.3% 1,329 0.2% Other ** 2 0.2% 1,644 0.3%

Source: CA Department of Health Services - Vital Statistics Section

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