QUALITIES OF LIFE, CAPE GIRARDEAU; SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH; A GOOD CHECK UP -- HEALTH INDICATORS SHOW RESIDENTS LIVING LONGER

Cape Girardeau County is not ready for the intensive-care unit yet. Using health indicators compiled by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, the county looks to have a good bill of health.

The most significant indicator of healthy living for Cape County residents is the fact that residents are dying at an older age. Statistics show age-adjusted deaths per 10,000 of Cape Girardeau County population to be increasing. Thus an aging population trend.

Debbie Leoni, director of Main Street Fitness in Jackson, said the increased quality of life in the county is a big factor to resident longevity.

"I'm encouraged by the older people being really involved with life, their whole lives," she said. "They live their life fully and don't just exercise -- they enjoy every part of life to its fullest."

Leoni, a registered nurse, said those older than 65 are dancing, bowling and getting involved in causes they believe in.

Maintaining independence is a main goal of the increasing aging population.

"They need to be strong," Leoni said. "They want to carry their own groceries and pick up their grandchildren."

Virginia Heston, health promotions specialist for St. Francis Medical Center and Universal Health and Fitness Center, said older adults do not focus on looks but on health.

"They want an inner workout as well as an outer workout," she said. Moderation and balance in everything are what Heston believes to be the keys to living longer.

A healthy aging trend needs to be the focus of community efforts. "We need programing for exercise that is the three F's, formal, functional and fun," Heston said.

The rate of deaths due to heart disease in the county is static. Dale Rauh, former director of the St. Francis Medical Center Heart Institute, said this reflects part of the efforts aimed at the aging population in the Cape Girardeau community. Healthy lifestyles can reduce the incidence of an increase in heart disease.

"My feeling is you would expect the general aging population to increase the number of deaths due to heart disease," he said, "but the efforts in education, exercise, health screenings and early intervention has balanced out that trend."

He said employee fitness programs are starting to show their worth as workers age.

"Employee fitness programs have given the employee the knowledge base on how to remain fit longer," he said.

Rauh said lifestyle modifications and awareness, on what to avoid and what to adopt in life, is foremost in avoiding heart disease.

Although deaths in the county due to lung cancer are fairly static, Fran Hildebrand, cancer control specialist for the American Cancer Society, said people need to work to keep young people in the county from starting to smoke.

"Smoking is a major factor in lung cancer. Kids are starting to smoke at a younger age, even in the primary grades," she said. And of those starting to smoke, the national trend shows girls outnumbering boys.

Mary Shepard, outpatient coordinator for the Gibson Recovery Center, said in order to reverse the trend of increased alcohol and drug use in Cape Girardeau teen-agers, everyone in the community must work together.

She said many teen-agers are not getting the help they need.

"Kids are not getting the intervention they need," she said. "There is a tremendous need for secondary prevention for the use of alcohol and drugs in teen-agers."

Shepard said there is a difference between alcohol and drug use and addiction. "Kids 14 to 17 who are already using alcohol and drugs but are not yet addicted need to be helped."

She said teen-agers who are having interference with alcohol and drug abuse need community intervention.

"We need to look at trying something different but we need community support," she said.

Newly diagnosed cases of AIDS in the county are down, but area AIDS experts said education on AIDS must continue.

Susan Pekios, volunteer with the Community Aids Support Group, said people in the county need to be educated on the modes of transmission and how to avoid risky behavior that leads to infection.

"HIV is not an indicator of who you are but of what you do," she said. Pekios defined risky behavior as those engaging in unprotected sex or sharing needles.

She said the key to keeping the downward trend of countywide AIDS cases is for people to become more responsible about their actions.

"People need to really take this seriously and change their behavior -- they need to take ownership of their own bodies and protect themselves on a individual basis."

Jeffrey Nute, executive director of the Heartland Prevention Care Network, agrees that preventative education is the solution to keeping cases down.

"A study shows that there has been a nationwide increase in teen-agers who contract AIDS," he said.

Schools in Cape Girardeau County have been active in the education of children about AIDS.

"Education has been started at the middle-school level on dealing with self-respect, self-esteem, and how to reduce risky behavior. Workshops have been given in area schools at the secondary and elementary levels," Nute said.

In order to keep the number of cases from increasing, he said county residents must continue to be educated about the AIDS.

"Further prevention and education needs to be more widespread," he said.