E. Behavioral Risk Factors

There is not a significant amount of behavioral risk data for Lompoc or for the State of California. The Cancer Surveillance Section of the California Department of Health Services conducts a Behavioral Risk Factor Survey once a year. The survey is an on-going telephone interview of randomly selected adults, which collects information on a wide variety of health-related behaviors. The survey is a good tool and should be considered as a means to evaluate behaviors, which affect the status of community health. The weakness of the survey is the small population contacted. For example in 1996, 4,003 people were surveyed, however, only 12 people were surveyed from Lompoc, which represents only .02% of the total population which is not a statistically valid sample size.

Some behavioral risk data regarding alcohol related traffic accidents and seat belt usage is available from the California Highway Patrol. As displayed in Table 4.15 and Exhibit 4.8, Lompoc has a higher percentage of alcohol-related traffic accidents, 19.7% as compared to 10% for California. However, for those accidents involving victims killed or injured, Lompoc is significantly lower than the State of California. Exhibit 4.9 shows that seat belt non-use violations are considerably lower for Lompoc compared to California.

Exhibit 4.8: Alcohol-related Traffic Accidents resulting in Death or Injury

Source: CA Dept. of Health Services, Vital Statistic Section

Exhibit 4.9: Seat Belt Non-use Violations

Source: CA Dept. of Health Services, Vital Statistic Section

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