Health Outcomes

The top three leading causes of death, for both males and females in Mason County, are heart disease, cancer, and accidents (unintentional injury). The type of cancer that causes the most deaths in the county is lung cancer (3).

Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) is the measurement of the rate and distribution of premature deaths. Measuring premature deaths, rather than overall mortality, focuses more attention on the deaths that could have been prevented.

The YPLL in Mason County (dark green line) has remained relatively consistent over time, with a decline starting in 2015. While Mason County’s YPLL rates remain higher than those of the state, they have consistently been lower than neighboring county, Grays Harbor, and more recently lower than Lewis County. Both neighboring counties, as well as Mason County, and the state have all had an increase in YPLL rates since 2018 (3).

Morbidity measures the burden of disease on a population and can reveal how healthy a community is. It can also show indicators for future health. Many of the leading causes of death and chronic diseases are caused or made worse by unhealthy lifestyle choices. Many of these poor behaviors are established in childhood and can include eating and exercise habits.

The amount of screentime among students has been increasing over the past few years. One cause of this is the COVID-19 pandemic. As students shifted to online schooling, with less access to recreational places, the amount of time they spend on their phones or computers has increased. Another cause of this increase is the rise in popularity of social media apps, including TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat (4, 5).