Epidemiology Reports

New Mexico has higher firearm death rates than the United States. Trends over the past two decades reveal persistent annual increases in the rates and numbers of firearm deaths in New Mexico. The current report summarizes epidemiology data about the patterns of firearm deaths in New Mexico. It also examines some of the policies and research around gun violence prevention.

This report provides information about Improving the Quality of Healthcare-Associated Infection Reporting in New Mexico, 2015-2017.

This report aims to: a) provide an initial report on NAS prevalence in NM, b) describe how NAS surveillance is performed, c) present data from NM’s NAS surveil-lance, and d) describe some current efforts made to improve both surveillance and provision of services for pregnant women with SUD.

Current depression and suicidal ideation are both of great interest as preventable and treatable public health issues. This report details the epidemiology of both in New Mexico adults.

The purpose of this study, which ends in 2019, is to better understand how individuals are exposed to six metals through private well drinking water and/or other sources.

This study helps create a common standard to assess what levels of care exist and the quality of transfer care that pregnant women and their infants receive in New Mexico.

An outbreak of varicella in a federally operated facility in New Mexico was investigated. Control measures including quarantine of detainees who were exposed to a varicella case and isolation of patients who developed disease likely reduced the spread of varicella in the facility. However, the outbreak lasted almost four incubation periods and vaccination of susceptible detainee’s might have shortened the length of the out-break.

Disability Adjusted Life Years are summary measures of health across geographies and time that can be used to assess disease burden and health system performance. Disability Adjusted Life Years can be used in conjunction with other information, such as mortality and morbidity rates and health surveys, to arrive at a more complete picture of the burden of disease in New Mexico.

This report reviews Hepatitis C Virus surveillance findings for people under 30 years of age to document the burden of Hepatitis C Virus infection in young New Mexicans and help link these patients to care and prevent the long-term effects of the untreated infection.

This report discusses how prenatal care visits present an opportunity for health care providers to educate women regarding behaviors and experiences that increase the likelihood of adverse maternal, fetal and infant outcomes.

The birth and death registration system has been a longstanding source of statistical information to guide public health policy development and program evaluation. This report presents natality and mortality statistics highlights for New Mexico in 2016.

In this report, descriptive, but not statistical analyses were used to depict the burden of asthma in NM. This report highlights significant disparities in asthma hospitalization and Emergency Department rates in New Mexico and areas where evidence-based asthma interventions can be targeted to address the disparities.

This study is a retrospective analysis of hospital inpatient discharge data from hospitals across the state of New Mexico (both public and private facilities). Multiple studies using large administrative datasets have shown that hospitalizations for septicemia have increased year after year.

In this analysis, emergency department data was analyzed for Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome cases. The primary objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome over a 6-year time period in New Mexico.

The emergence and dissemination of carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the US represents a serious threat to public health. Decreasing the impact of these organisms will require a coordinated effort among stakeholders including healthcare facilities and providers, public health, and industry. This report quantifies the magnitude of CRE and CRPA and the current recommended approach to control transmission of these organisms in healthcare facilities.

The National Center on Family Homelessness estimated that 2.5 million children, or one out of every 30 U.S. children, experienced homelessness at some time in 2013.1 This estimate used a definition of homeless-ness based on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which defines as homeless any family or individual who lacks a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence.

One of the ten great recent public health achievements in the U.S. has been noted to be childhood lead poisoning prevention and control, mostly due to the removal of lead from paint and fuel. While children from all geographic, social and economic levels can be affected, children living in poverty and in older, poorly maintained homes have higher exposure to lead.

Asthma is a common chronic condition in which inflammation and constriction of the airways causes shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing. Control of asthma symptoms is essential for quality of life and to prevent life-threatening asthma attacks that require urgent care or hospitalization.

New Mexico’s infant mortality rate has not significantly changed from 2005 to 2013, while the U.S. has had an overall statistically significant decline of 10% during this period. As part of the nationwide collaborative effort to reduce infant mortality, areas of potential intervention will be identified primarily using differences between the infant mortality rates of New Mexico and the United States.

This report provides insight into the burden of drug overdose in New Mexico using drug overdose death information. The findings provide a limited view of the impact of drug abuse in New Mexico.

This report explains how New Mexico’s efforts to prevent sexual violence among youth have shown promising results. Primary prevention through school-based education appears to be effective in changing attitudes and knowledge related to sexual violence.

The national standard for estimating gestational age of newborns, until recently, relied on the interval between the first day of the mother’s last normal menstrual period and the date of birth. Beginning with 2014 national birth data released in December 2015, the National Center for Health Statistics transitioned to the obstetric estimate of gestation defined as the birth attendant’s final estimate of gestation at delivery.

This was an exploratory analysis to determine if there were neighborhood level risk factors associated with pertussis cases in New Mexico. Overall, incidence de-creased among groups with lower poverty and crowding, particularly for White and Hispanic populations.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also called ObamaCare, was fully implemented on January 1, 2014. The health insurance exchange in New Mexico, BeWellNM, provides the opportunity for enrollment in a health insurance plan. Medicaid, a joint federal and state program, helps with medical costs for those with limited income and resources.