A new study of Monroe County's health needs shows that residents face a wide range of factors.

But researchers at East Stroudsburg University say the mental health, substance abuse and traffic accidents are among the most alarming trends in the county's health in the past four years.ESU's College of Health Sciences recently completed a Community Health Needs Assessment commissioned by Pocono Medical Center. The college's dean, Dr. Alberto J.F. Cardelle, presented the findings last week.In preparing the study, CHS compared data on Monroe County's health with that of five similar-sized counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey. They also surveyed more than 500 residents and health care workers.Compared to its peer counties, Monroe County had higher incidences of adults who smoke (24 percent), and adults who report drinking to excess (23 percent).That was backed up in surveys.Cardelle said that a large portion of respondents said that more needs to be done to address mental health and substance abuse.Those factors can contribute directly to deaths in some cases, and perhaps more importantly, make someone more likely to die of a chronic illness."It's a factor in not following up taking care of your diabetes and other underlying causes of chronic illness," Cardelle said. "There is something in health care called noncompliance, you don't properly undergo the treatment you need."The county also continues to lag behind its peer counties in the number of primary care physicians. Monroe County has 48.27 primary care doctors per 100,000 people. In peer counties, that figure ranged between 53 (Butler County) and 136 (Dauphin County., which is home to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center).That was identified as an issue in ESU's first study three years ago, but still remains a problem.Access to primary care physicians was more of a factor for those on Medicare and Medicaid 71 percent of health care workers surveyed said that access to primary care for those populations was a problem.The study's findings also pointed to trends in Monroe County that go beyond public health. One of those is the rate of pedestrian and traffic deaths, which Cardelle said was significantly higher than any other peer county. Respondents reported having below-average access to sidewalks and walking routes.Cardelle also pointed out some alarming trends about the overall sense of community. Survey respondents were asked a series of questions about their faith in their neighbors to help in a time of need."It's not important for health, but it's important for social capital," he said, explaining that a stronger community goes a long way to addressing community health issues.The medical center will now see how it can implement the study. The medical center spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on outreach each year, and officials say the study will help direct how that money is utilized. There are already some preventive programs underway that address some of the key factors in the study like smoking cessation, and the Biggest Winner weight loss challenge.The full text of the study will soon be available at poconohealthmatters.org.Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC