Part of the Missouri contingent of the Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons traveled across the state by train to draw attention to its “Divided We Fail” initiative, which focuses on quality affordable health care and lifetime financial security for all Americans.
“We are working for equality financially and for health benefits for everyone,” Marge Capp, Missouri co-campaign manager, said. She traveled from Hannibal, Mo. to meet other AARP members who arrived by train.
“It’s very important that we have some type of help to make medicine affordable for seniors,” Capp said.
The Divided We Fail Express made stops in Lee’s Summit and Jefferson City and St. Louis. Their journey concluded at the Amtrak station in downtown St. Louis, where supporters met up with other AARP volunteers in the area.
The AARP rally was a call to action to citizens and to lawmakers, asking others to sign to pledge cards that they will ask elected officials to work with and support the Divided We Fail campaign.
See www.aarp.org/issues/dividedwefail for more info.
Smoke signals
Missouri Foundation for Health releases smoking study
Special to the American
Missourians smoke too much. A majority of smokers in the state want to quit. Almost 56 percent of Missouri adults support local laws to prohibit smoking indoors.
These are a few of the findings of the first-ever, comprehensive county-level survey of tobacco use and related health problems in Missouri counties.
The survey, managed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and funded by Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH), queried almost 50,000 Missouri residents on a wide range of tobacco-related issues.
The survey, which cost $1.4 million, enabled DHSS to conduct 49,513 telephone interviews in 2007 and 2008. It is the largest special survey ever undertaken in Missouri. Because of its size, the survey allows for analysis of tobacco use and related health problems for all of Missouri’s 114 counties and the City of St. Louis.
Among the key results from the survey:
* Taney County, which includes Branson, has the highest county rate n 40.1 percent. Nodaway County has the lowest rate at 13.9%.
* Statewide, almost 64 percent of Missouri smokers intend to quit in the next six months.
* Statewide, 56 percent of Missouri adults support local laws to prohibit smoking in public workplaces, including restaurants and bars.
* Health care coverage varies greatly from county to county n Jefferson County has the lowest rate of uninsured adults at 8.1 percent, while Reynolds County has the highest uninsured rate at 34.6 percent.
In addition, national statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids demonstrate that tobacco use has a significant impact on Missouri residents.
* 23.2 percent of Missouri residents smoke as compared to the national rate of 20.8 percent.
* Missouri is 49th in state tax per cigarette pack (17 cents). The national average is $1.18.
* Missouri has the ninth highest adult smoking rate in the U.S.
* Almost 59 percent of Missouri’s high school students have used some form of tobacco product.
* Smoking costs Missouri $2.13 billion annually in direct health care costs.
The survey is one element of MFH’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Initiative, a nine-year, $40 million effort to combat Missouri’s substantial tobacco problem.
The survey is the result of a private/public partnership between MFH, a private foundation, and the Missouri DHSS; no state funding was used to conduct this survey. DHSS contracted with the University of Missouri’s Health and Behavioral Risk Research Center to conduct the interviews.
The study results are available through the DHSS Community Profiles website (www.dhss.mo.gov/CommunityDataProfiles).