Health survey of Arkansans shows ‘concerning’ issues, researchers say

Roughly 33% of adult Arkansans are currently showing signs of alcohol use disorder.

That was just one of the findings of a new statewide health survey — just the second in the country — that was announced Thursday by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

What was the most concerning data point in the survey, which documented the health patterns of 10,000 Arkansans?

Dr. Benjamin Amick, one of the creators of the survey, let out an audible breath when he was asked the question.

“We live in Arkansas,” Amick stated simply. “Do you not know Arkansas?”

For Amick, an associate dean for research and professor of epidemiology at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, there was almost too much to list.

“The most concerning thing is that there are so many things that are concerning,” Amick said. “We have high levels of food insecurity, we have high levels of obesity, we have high levels of clinical depression, we have high levels of smoking, we have high levels of alcohol use disorder. We have a lot of chronic conditions.

“We have a lot of issues that need to be solved.”

The point was put another way by Amick’s partner and the lead investigator on the project, Dr. Michael Niño, who explained the reasoning behind creating just the second statewide health survey in the country.

The first was the California Health Interview Survey, which has existed for decades.

“We compete for the bottom year after year in terms of health metrics,” said Niño, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. “When I started to look at the existing data, it became very clear that we don’t have, or we did not have the data infrastructure in the state to truly address disparities in health in Arkansas. And so that was the real motivation.”

The survey, which initially invited 70,000 Arkansans to participate, was also an attempt to provide useful data in a growing “information desert,” according to Amick.

“Our goal has been to try to identify and monitor Arkansas specific health trends for all counties and all census tracts in the state,” Amick explained. “There are not currently any tools out there that allow us to do that. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance survey that was conducted by the CDC is going away.

“Most recently, the data on food insecurity that was being collected at the national level is no longer going to be done.”

So how did the researchers get information from 10,000 Arkansans?

A full court press to get their attention.

“You have to get a sample, target your sample and go after your sample,” Amick said.

Respondents — taken from a list that was purchased for the sake of the survey — received four mailed invitations, three emails and six phone calls. There was a QR code if people wanted to take it online and a phone number if they wanted to do it as an interview.

There was also a $10 incentive for completing the survey.

“We did everything, and you should be impressed with the 10% response rate,” Amick said.

The average age of the survey taker was 48. Sixty-five percent were women, 71% were white, 13% were Black, 53% were married and 92% had some form of health insurance.

Among the areas covered in the survey were food insecurity, loneliness, their experience with the weather and maternal health.

While the results of the survey will be available to the public via an online dashboard by early next year, Amick and Niño shared some of the concerning and surprising data they were able to collect.

One of the surprises came from the 33% of people who are experiencing alcohol use disorder.

“Northwest Arkansas and in the Little Rock area, we have some census tracks that are well above the state average,” said Niño, who called it “the most surprising” part of the survey for him.

Amick agreed, saying he was surprised that alcohol use disorder was “not a problem along the Delta.”

Seeing the prevalence of it in Northwest Arkansas and Little Rock is notable, Amick said, because those are areas “where you would see more economic advantage.”

Amick was also surprised by the 86% of respondents who reported they had seen a doctor in the previous year.

However, Niño played devil’s advocate with that stat.

“That may not necessarily be because they’re being proactive about their health, but because they’re sicker.”

The survey found that in 192 census tracts, seven out of 10 people were overweight or obese.

“We have 83 census tracks where over 50% of residents have a history of hypertension,” Niño said. “So one out of every two adults has a history of hypertension in these particular census tracts, and they’re spread throughout the state.”

Niño noted that the point of the survey was to “tell the story of Arkansas, both good and bad.”

“When you look at these data and you look at the census tract level, depending on the outcome, we have plenty of areas in the state of Arkansas that are doing really well, depending on what you’re looking at,” Niño said. The story isn’t always that in every area, we’re seeing substantial prevalence of poor health. … It will be important for us to really understand what people are doing in these areas to ensure that they have better health profiles than in others.”