2013 Population Estimates Released

The 2013 US Census Population Estimates were released today. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (PEP) produces estimates of the population for the United States, its states, counties, cities, and towns. Demographic components of population change (births, deaths, and migration) are produced at the national, state, and county levels of geography. Additionally, housing unit estimates are produced for the nation, states, and counties.

These estimates are used in federal funding allocations, as survey controls, as denominators for vital rates and per capita time series, and as indicators of recent demographic changes. With each new release of annual estimates, the entire time series of estimates is revised for all years back to the last census. All previously published estimates are superseded and archived.

The table below shows the population estimates for counties in New York. It comes from the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics, which issues an entire report (viewable through that link) on the estimates.

Pet Ownership and Heart Disease Data: American Heart Association

The American Heart Association has released a study which suggest that owning a pet, and specifically owning a dog, may help reduce your likelihood of having heart disease.


“Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with a decreased risk of heart disease” said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and chair of the committee that wrote the statement after reviewing previous studies of the influence of pets.

“In essence, data suggest that there probably is an association between pet ownership and decreased cardiovascular risk,” Levine said. “What’s less clear is whether the act of adopting or acquiring a pet could lead to a reduction in cardiovascular risk in those with pre-existing disease. Further research, including better quality studies, is needed to more definitively answer this question.”

The current research suggests that:

• Pet ownership is probably associated with a reduction in heart disease risk factors and increased survival among patients. But the studies aren’t definitive and do not necessarily prove that owning a pet directly causes a reduction in heart disease risk. “It may be simply that healthier people are the ones that have pets, not that having a pet actually leads to or causes reduction in cardiovascular risk,” Levine said.
• Dog ownership in particular may help reduce cardiovascular risk. People with dogs may engage in more physical activity because they walk them. In a study of more than 5,200 adults, dog owners engaged in more walking and physical activity than non-dog owners, and were 54 percent more likely to get the recommended level of physical activity. 
• Owning pets may be associated with lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and a lower incidence of obesity.
• Pets can have a positive effect on the body’s reactions to stress. 

Taking a look at local data on heart disease related deaths over the last 5 years from the NYS Department of Health, it does seem to show some reduction in the numbers and percent of deaths due to heart related diseases in our region.

At the same time, we find this data from a previous posts about dog licenses issued in Oneida County . It shows an increase in the number of dogs licensed in the last five years.

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So there's been some fluctuation in deaths due to heart disease, and in increase in dogs licensed in the County over the last five years. Coincidence? I'll leave that for the cat owners to argue about !

Female Mortality Rates Rise in Almost Half of US Counties Between 1992 and 2006

An article in The Incidental Economist  notes:

"There is a frightening graph in a recent article in Health Affairs by David Kindig and Erika Cheng. Kindig and Cheng looked at trends in male and female mortality rates from 1992–96 to 2002–06 in 3,140 US counties. What they found was that female mortality rates increased in 42.8% of counties (male mortality rates increased in only 3.4%). The counties are mapped below: red means that female mortality worsened. You can see a strong regional pattern: just about every county showed had worsened female mortality in several southern states, while no county showed such decline in New England. There are many questions about what explains this pattern. For example, did healthier women migrate out of the south from 1992 to 2006? Nevertheless, the map depicts a shocking pattern of female hardship, primarily in the southeast and midwest."

Click on the map to enlarge the view and note that central New York appears to fall into what Kindig and Cheng refer to as counties with "minimal improvement" in female mortality rates.

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