About 40% of US adults have at least one underlying health condition that would put them at risk for severe complications of coronavirus, according to a new CDC report.
When the study authors looked at each county, they found wide health disparities in the rates of five chronic conditions: obesity, Type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In some counties, about 1 in 4 people had at least one of those chronic conditions. That number rose to about 2 in 3 in other counties.
"Counties with the highest prevalences of any condition were concentrated in Southeastern states, particularly in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as some counties in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and northern Michigan," the study authors wrote.NBC News appThe granular county-by-county data presented in the CDC report can help guide public health officials at a local level.
"It will allow for more effective messaging about social distancing and other public health measures," said Dr. Dan Culver, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Cleveland Clinic, adding the information could be used to make decisions on where to allocate supplies and therapeutics. "Targeting the more vulnerable populations will be easier if we understand where they live," Culver said.
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