Financial
The population in corona in California as per 2013 was 159 503 with 100% living in urban. The males population was 80,961 (50.8%) and the females population was 78 542 (49.2%). The median resident age is 33.6 years in comparison to 35.7 years of California median age. The estimated median household income as per 2013 is $66, 094 as compared with $60,190 in California (City-data, 2016). The estimated per capital income was $25, 372 in 2013. The median gross rent is $1, 330.
Social challenges
In Corona there are high crimes rates which have continue to be a challenge to the social well-being to the people living in this region (Shin, 2013). The crime index for Corona is 33. There are two main types of crimes committed in Corona; these are property crimes, e.g. burglary, theft and motor vehicle thefts and violent crimes such as robbery, assaults, and rape. Property crimes are the leading with an annual average of 3,458 cases; violent crimes, on the other hand, are 182 (Sperling's BestPlaces, 2016).
Poverty is another social challenge in Corona whereby the poverty level of Corona is approximately 9.9%. In 2013, the residents of Corona whose income was below the poverty were 8.3%. The income per capita is $27,200 while the median household income in Corona is $78,892. This is social issue has negative impact to the efforts aiming at reducing health disparities among the various communities living in Corona. The poverty level has negatively affected Hispanic community.
Drug abuse rates and alcohol use among youths is high in Corona. Most youth in Corona aged between 12 and 17 years abuse prescription drugs than other prohibited drugs such as heroin and cocaine (City of Corona, 2016). As a result, general mental health problems that affect both children and adults in Corona such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety and bipolar disorders have significantly rises up.
Barriers
In Corona, there is no enough number of food supplies that are required to address the issue prevalence of obesity and diabetes which are threatening health conditions in the region. According to the food environment statistics, there are only 330 grocery stores that translate to 1.60 grocery stores per 10, 000 population. The number of supercenters and club stores are in the ratio of 0.05 to 10, 000 population (City-data, 2016). The numbers of full-service restaurants are in the ratio of 5.45 per 10,000 populations. These entire basic nutrition requirements are not adequate enough to address the issue well-being of the population. As a result of these shortages of food supplies, the adult diabetes rate stands at 7.7%. The adult obesity rate is 24.5%. The low-income preschool obesity rate is 15.2% in comparison to 17.9% of the state (City-data, 2016). Additionally, water supply is not accessible by majority of the population as there are only two drinking water stations which are California institution for women and Grace Korean Church.
Furthermore, majority of the Hispanic cannot access to the community fitness programs and recreational facilities such as sports, gym discounts, bike path, pools courts, recess, and playgrounds thus, it is a big barrier to healthy living. Some of the Hispanics are living sedentary life whereby majorities are spending a long time watching TV. These two factors have significantly contributed to rising rates of obesity and overweight among children and adults that have led to diabetes, hypertension, metabolic disorders and other cardiovascular diseases across all life courses.
Additionally, there are significant ethnic and racial disparities in the health status and health care that have made the Hispanic in Corona not to received adequate attention (City-data, 2016). As a result of this, the majority of Hispanics have very little knowledge about sleep as a positive healthy habit and they have also little knowledge of the common sleeping disorders such as snoring, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and insomnia. The sleeping disordered breathing among Hispanic community is strongly associated with diabetes, obesity, smoking and use of alcohol. There is reduced sleep duration among Hispanics which has led to obesity, sleep apnea and other sleep-related problems contributing to heart disease. Most of the Hispanic had TV in the sleeping room of children and some parents thought that the presence of a TV will help the children to sleep (City-data, 2016).
Elimination (Environmental Health Concerns)
The main air pollutants are carbon (II) oxide, nitrogen (IV) oxide, sulphur (IV) oxide, ozone, lead, and particulate matter. The air quality index (AQI) as per the year 2012 was 178 versus 74 of the U.S. this AQI is significantly worse than the average. There is Corona Sewage Treatment Plant which is in charge of the overall waste disposal in the entire region of Corona. Furthermore, there is Corona Fire Department Station which is a charge of fire extinguishing when there is fire outbreak in order to prevent damage to property, loss of life and pollution of the environment. There are strong FM radio stations known as K295AI (106.9 FM, Muscoy which owns by Association for Community Education which is educating the community about the hygiene practices such as washing hands, laundry services etc. and the importance of the use of clean bathrooms (City-data, 2016).
Sexuality/Reproductive
A larger percentage, 51% are married, while 2.4% have separated, 4.2% are widowed, 9.3% have divorced and about 32.2% have not married. Additionally, there are 0.4% lesbian couples and 0.3% gay men of all households. There are no established programs to educate communities about HIV/AIDs and other sexual transmitted diseases. Therefore, majority of the population has little knowledge about their health status and, a small percentage can be capable of accessing health information and health care especially those concerning birth control and maternal child health programs. In order to tame the situations, there are programs which have been established within the community such nursing, in-patients hospice facilities and community radio station that are being to strengthen the health care within the Hispanic community.
Interview
I had an opportunity to interview Mrs. R. M. who is a registered community health nurse. She is in charge of education and prevention of the prevalence of obesity and overweight among children and youths as this area was identified as one of the regions in which youths are the vulnerable population. She was in charge of educating the youths on the preventable measures of obesity that include consuming a limited amount of energy-dense foods, increase physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviors. This is what she outlines to me upon interviewing her.
This area is a cosmopolitan with about six ethnic and racial communities. The dominant community is Hispanic, 41.3% followed by non-Hispanic white, 37.45. The estimated median household income is $66,094.The estimated per capital income is $25, 372. The median gross rent is $1, 330. The main social challenges facing majority of communities are high crime rate, high poverty level, and drug abuse and alcohol use among the youths. Poverty has made difficult to control overweight and obesity among adults and children. Although the government has deployed health professionals to address the primary health care through educating people to avoid the risky behaviors that might lead to obesity. Additionally, various Corona community health facilities have been set up. Some of the barriers are lack of enough food supplies and groceries, inadequate recreational facilities and physical activity programs and health disparities. Recreational facilities and physical activity programs are mainly available to non-Hispanic whites but are less accessible to the Hispanic community. Nevertheless, there is an effort by all of the stakeholders to reduce such disparities. One of those interventions is by expanding public playgrounds and creating awareness on the importance of physical exercise body health. The public health nurses, community health nurses and municipal are in charge of ensuring environmental health hazards are prevented. They have come up with policies and by-laws that are controlling emission of pollutants and wastes disposal and making sure that they are reduced to harmless before being discharged. Most of the members of Hispanic community prefer a woman to man marriage. But there is a small percentage of population who has engaged in lesbianism and gays
Questions
1. What are the levels of income to the communities living in this region? And is there any financial implication as a result of that level of income?
2. What are the main social challenges facing the people in this area and the most affected ethnic group if any? And are there health professions and health resources within the community to address those health problems?
3. What are the barriers facing population in this region to access adequate health care?
4. Who are concerned with the environmental health in this region? What measures have they put in place to ensure environmental health issues are addressed?
5. What are the sexuality/reproductions among the members of the community?
References
Shin, T. (2013). Gang Violence Fears on Rise in Corona After Drive-By Shooting | NBC Southern California. Retrieved from http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Gang-Violence-Fears-on-Rise-in-Corona-After-Drive-By-Shooting-210660611.html
Sperling's BestPlaces. (2016). Corona, California Crime. Retrieved from http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/california/corona
