Assessing the Needs of the community

Phoenix is the capital of Arizona and seat of the Maricopa County which is the largest city in the state and is located in the center of Arizona.The nationwide population by 2013 registered atapprox. 309,200,000and 90 sq. mi came out as the population density(Johnson, G. Wesley, Jr., 1993).

In terms of race, African Americans are 12.56%, Caucasian are 74.17%,0.82% are American Indian while Native Hawaiians are 0.17%and other race occupies only 4.79% while 2.68% are of mixed race.In Arizona, 40.2% of people are of theLatino or Hispanic origin.If employment factors are considered, theincome per capita is 5.7% less that of Arizona average and 14% less than the national average. Additionally, the median household income is around 4.9% less that of Arizona and also 4.8% lower than the nation one.

Poverty level is 26% in Phoenix greater than Arizona’s average. The figure surpasses the national’saverage by over 40%. Arizona Health Status and Statistics of the year 2013 implied that there were 97,862 pregnancies in Arizona as compared to98,424 in 2012and 110,145 in the year 2008. Number of resident live births decreasedby over 0.5% in 2012 from approx. 85,700to 84,800 in year 2013 and the reported abortions increased from 13,029 in the year 2012 to 13,154 in 2013 while number of spontaneous fetal losses increased by 16.0% as reported from 470 to 545 the year 2013 (VanderMeer, Philip; Mary VanderMeer, 2002).

Among Arizona residents, the total number of deaths from all causes increased by about 2.0% to 2013 and the age-adjusted mortality rate for all causes of death increased from 677.2/100,000 to 678.8/100,000 in 2013. In 2012, fewerdeaths were reported as compared to 2013 for some of the leading causes of mortality including nephritis, cerebrovascular and hypertension.

Number of resident births reached its high point in2007 at 102,667 and in 2008, number reduced to 99,204, said to be the first annual decline. In 2008,birth cases reduced reaching a low level of approx. 85,000 births and in 2012, number of resident births increased to 85,735 (Elizabeth Tandy, Shermer, 2013)

The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) began Abortion Surveillance Program in July 1976, as authorized by the Arizona Revised Statute 36-344 where the program entailed the reporting of induced terminations of pregnancy in outpatient treatment, hospitals and physicians’ offices throughout the entire State.

Based on the information obtained, in2013, 14.6% of the abortion records had race/ethnicity identified as unknown and 32.1% of abortion records had two or more racial/ethnicity group were identified.Inclusivepregnancies in Arizona lessened by 0.2% from 2010 to 2013 while overall number of pregnancies remained stable over this era, the quantity of pregnancies across the years mottled by race/ethnicity.

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