Chapter 2 – Health

Health data are collected and maintained by the CNMI Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation (CHC).  The data included here go through calendar 2014, but the CHC collects statistics on a monthly basis, and so has more recent data.

The CNMI has about 1,000 births a year, and that number has remained fairly constant in recent years.  About half the births are to residents, while the remainder are to temporary residents and tourists, with tour-ist births staying about 300 in recent years.  More male than female births were reported in each year (569 to 488 or a sex ratio of 117 in 2014).  

Of the 6,500 births between 2009 and 2014, about 3,500 (about 54 percent) were to residents, with about 3,000 being U.S. citizen births, about 360 to Freely Associated citizens, and about 200 on Immediate Resi-dent Permits.  Of the temporary residents, almost all were guest workers, although about 100 were to guest worker dependents.  About, as noted, about 1,300 were to tourists.  Of the tourists, about 1,100 of the 1,300 were Chinese.

The crude birth rate (births per 1,000 population) increased from about 19.9 in 2009 to 2011 to about 21.1 during 2012 to 2014.  Resident births were about half the total as noted.  The CNMI had very few low-weight births and almost all babies were born to term.  The total fertility rate decreased from about 2.9 births over the reproductive period during 2009 to 2011 based on the age-specific births to about 2.2 during the 2012 to 2014 period.  The age-specific rates decreased for females younger than 35 but increased for those 35 years and over.

About 800 deaths were reported for the CNMI during the period 2011 to 2014.  About 62 percent of the deaths were to males.  During the 4 year period, the largest number of deaths were of the circulatory sys-tem (heart attacks and strokes), at 251 (about 1 in 3), followed by Neoplasms – cancers (133 or 1 in 6).  Males died on average at 60.3 years while females died on average at 63.6 years, so life expectancy is lower than in the States.  The CNMI had very few neonatal and post-neonatal deaths during the period.

In 2013, the CNMI conducted a Behavioral Risk Survey.  The estimated population of adults at that time was 34,670.  About 20,000 adults had never smoked cigarettes (59 percent) while 6,800 (20 percent) smoked every day.  More people did not chew betel nut with tobacco daily, but still 5,100 or 15 percent of the adults did chew betel nut with tobacco daily.  While 12,600 (37 percent) had never used alcohol, about 900 (3 percent) drank alcohol on a daily basis.  And 244 adults reported smoking marijuana on a daily ba-sis.  The numbers for heroin use, hallucinogens, inhalants, and prescription drugs use were very small and not reliable.  The average user of cigarettes, betel nut with tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana was between 16 and 20 years old when he or she started using.

Most adults found considerable risk in all of the substances presented, and the large majority also disap-proved of their use.  Most adults had not driven vehicles when impaired and most had not been riding with someone else impaired.  And, most adults had not suffered from a nervous condition in the month before the survey.  

The Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, used to provide statistics on participants.  Data are included in this chapter based on data up to FY 2004.  More recent da-ta are probably available, but were not provided.