Document Type

Book

Publication Date

Spring 5-24-2026

Abstract

This report presents a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) of Horry County, South Carolina. Its central analytical contribution is a five-corridor framework derived from k-means cluster analysis of the county's 76 residential census tracts, drawing on social and economic indicators from the American Community Survey and health estimates from the CDC PLACES program. The analysis organizes the county into five distinct community types — Affluent Coastal Retirement, Moderate Coastal Retirement, Inland Rural/Suburban Transitional, Concentrated Disadvantage, and Hispanic Hospitality Worker — each with a characteristic profile of social and health conditions.

Within this framework, the assessment examines a range of social determinants of health, including food insecurity, housing cost burden, transportation access, and insurance coverage, alongside a parallel set of health indicators, including diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and depression, and benchmarks each against state estimates. By situating health patterns within the county's spatial and demographic structure rather than treating it as a single, undifferentiated population, the framework gives health systems, public health practitioners, and community partners a clearer, more actionable picture of where needs are concentrated and how they might be addressed.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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