Public Health in the Rockies 2026

This session will both inform and assist public health practitioners and professionals regarding the current status of suicide rates in Colorado and assess the effectiveness of current programs to decrease its incidence. In this interactive presentation, attendees will be invited to participate in the conversation about suicide and how it is more prevalent among certain professions and occupations. QPR Training will be embedded in the presentation, providing attendees information they can use on both a personal and professional level.

Learning Objective:
To assess differences in health care utilization, documented social needs, and spending among Black populations in Colorado using Colorado All Payer Claims Database (CO APCD) data.

Background/Purpose:
Black populations in Colorado continue to experience disparities in health outcomes and health care utilization. This study evaluated differences in emergency department (ED) use, inpatient admissions, readmissions, follow-up care, documented social needs, and spending across insurance types and Black population subgroups.

Methods:
Researchers conducted a retrospective claims-based analysis using CO APCD data from 2018–2025 across commercial, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and Traditional Medicare populations. Outcomes included ED visits, inpatient admissions, 30-day readmissions, 7-day follow-up visits, ICD-10 Z-code utilization, and total health care spending. Measures were standardized as rates per member per year (PMPY).

Results:
The largest differences were observed in ED utilization. In Traditional Medicare, Black, Hispanic or Latino members experienced 1.99 ED visits PMPY compared to 0.74 among All Other Public Health Fields Race populations. Similar patterns were observed across Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and commercial coverage. Inpatient admissions were also higher among Black populations, reaching 0.21 PMPY in Traditional Medicare compared to 0.14 among All Other Public Health Fields Race populations. Thirty-day readmission rates reached 0.09 PMPY among Black, Hispanic or Latino members compared to 0.03 among All Other Public Health Fields Race populations. Documented social needs, measured using ICD-10 Z-codes, were consistently higher among Black populations across insurance types.

Implications:
Findings highlight consistent, system-wide differences in health care utilization across Black populations in Colorado and support collaborative, community-based outreach, care navigation, and prevention strategies to advance health equity statewide.

Background: Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations in recreational cannabis have risen dramatically with some products routinely exceeding 72% THC. Evidence links use of today’s THC products among adolescents to increased risks for cannabis use disorder, psychosis, and neurodevelopmental harm. Traditional public health channels are less likely to reach young people. To close the gap, Tea on THC, a cannabis-focused public health education campaign, developed a unique strategy to provide authentic messages through trusted teen and young adult messengers on social media.

Methods: Tea on THC deployed a multi-channel social media strategy across TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, YouTube and Twitch. This approach combined authentic youth voices and vetted influencer partnerships. Research was translated into creative assets, with messaging optimized using real-time performance data. Evaluation tracked reach, engagement, sentiment, and awareness using real-time metrics.

Results: Preliminary findings indicated that a diversified strategy combining authentic youth voices, influencer partnerships, and campaign content extended prevention messaging to young people, particularly teens aged 13 – 17 years old. Sentiment analysis revealed favorable reception of creator-driven content. Final reach, engagement, and awareness data will be presented. Using TikTok in Year 2 has generated over 8.4 million impressions just in 2026, driving engagement amongst 13-18 year olds. In February 2026, Tea on THC expanded to new platforms to reach more youth: Snapchat, Twitch, and Reddit, already generating over 5 million impressions. These metrics represent a significant change over previous year.

Implications: Effective youth cannabis prevention requires more complex approaches, especially given the contemporary social media environment. . By combining authentic youth voices and digital creators together with evidence-based content across multiple social media platforms, the Tea on THC campaign expanded youth access to prevention information, . This model offers a novel, replicable framework for multi-channel youth health communication.

Background / Purpose
Rural populations carry a disproportionate tobacco burden, and recent surveillance data suggest the gap is widening. Declines in rural tobacco use have slowed markedly relative to urban populations; among rural women, the decline has stalled entirely. This presentation argues the moment is critical: as a policy penetration gaps limit rural progress, evidence indicates the tobacco industry is intensifying its focus on rural communities through retail channel expansion and targeted product development.

MethodsT
his presentation synthesizes peer-reviewed literature and national surveillance data (NSDUH, BRFSS, PATH) to examine: (1) rural–urban tobacco prevalence disparities and their trajectory; (2) the role of differential policy penetration in explaining diverging trends; (3) tobacco industry retail channel expansion into rural markets; and (4) nicotine pouch use patterns disaggregated by sex, geography, and smokeless tobacco history.

Results
Rural tobacco prevalence remains substantially higher than urban rates across most product categories. Among rural women, use declines have stalled entirely. Nicotine pouch use, while low in overall national prevalence, is concentrated among young rural men with smokeless tobacco histories — consistent with deliberate industry positioning. The tobacco industry's expansion into discount retail has structurally amplified rural tobacco access: a 2023 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine analyzing FDA inspection data from 2015–2020 found Family Dollar had the highest rate of tobacco sales to minors among major retailers studied, at 12.1% of inspections, a pattern reflecting lax enforcement in the outlet formats most prevalent in rural communities.

Implications
Rural tobacco control is at an inflection point. Stalling declines, industry retail targeting, and the emergence of smokeless-adjacent nicotine products in rural male markets demand a coordinated public health response. Attendees will leave with a framework for understanding who is most at risk and what evidence-based policy and cessation responses are available.