CLEVELAND, Ohio--Adults in Cuyahoga County tend to drink alcoholic beverages more often than people in Ohio and across the nation.

And "binge" drinking -- consuming five or more drinks on one occasion, four or more for women -- is more common in Cuyahoga County than elsewhere, according to a new study by the Center for Health Affairs, the local hospital industry group, and its partners.

The 114-page "Cuyahoga Community Health Needs Assessment" also shows striking disparities in the health status of blacks, young and poor people in the area. The study, based on 620 responses to a mail survey, provides a picture of the health of the 987,000 people age 18 and older in Cuyahoga County.

It found that 24 percent of county residents are considered binge drinkers. That's compared to 20 percent in Ohio and 18 percent in the nation.

The age group with the most binge drinkers was 18 to 34 year olds. The age group that binge drank most often: People over 65.

Eleven percent of adults reported driving after drinking too much.

"Some of the things that stood out to the group were the alcohol rates were kind of high -- drinking, binge drinking, drinking and driving," said Britney Ward, who presented the report Monday in Cleveland to about 80 health care and community leaders. "Those numbers were higher than the state and the nation.

"People also felt that mental health in general was an issue," added Ward, assistant director of health planning for Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, the hospital industry group in the Toledo area.

The report's good news was that about half of the county's adults consider their health excellent or very good, and 62 percent said they saw a doctor for a routine checkup in the last year. Still, nearly two-thirds concede they are overweight or obese, a troublesome figure that's right in line with the rest of the nation. The study also found differences in health status by age, race and income, including:

•Nineteen percent of the county's adults considered their health to be fair or poor, but that figure jumped to 48 percent for people with an annual income less than $25,000.

•Thirteen percent of adults said they were uninsured, but for people between the ages of 18 and 29 that figure was 31 percent.

•Thirty-eight percent of adults said they had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, but that jumped to 46 percent for men, 49 percent for blacks, and 51 percent for people with incomes less than $25,000.

•The percentage of blacks who said they had been diagnosed with diabetes, 17 percent, was nearly double that of the entire population of adults, 9 percent.

•Ten percent said they had felt sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row in the last year. That figure was 17 percent for blacks and 20 percent for the poor.

"I think the next step for us as a community -- and that includes all the hospitals -- is to take the data and dig through it say, 'Okay, what are the things we think we can move the dial on?'" said Bill Ryan, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Health Affairs. "And what's the strategy for moving forward."

Ryan said the assessment, one of at least three being done in the area by different groups, could be used as a guide on where to focus resources and collaborate.

"But from my prospective it's [also] about advocacy, using it to hammer home the points that we all know are true, but now I've got data," he said.

Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Terry Allan, whose agency has teamed up with the Cleveland and Shaker Heights health departments in one of the other health assessment efforts, called "HIP-Cuyahoga," said Monday that the new report would complement the data his group has gathered. "Combining the two sources will enable us to work together on behalf of Cuyahoga County residents," Allan said.

The assessment also could fulfill a year-end requirement under the Affordable Care Act that each hospital measure the health status of nearby residents and provide a plan to improve it, Ward and others said.

The report's other key findings included:

•Twenty-two percent of the county's adults had been treated in an emergency room once or twice in the last year.

•Twenty-five percent reported having a firearm in their home.

•And 24 percent said their lives were limited in some way because of a physical, mental or emotional problem. The second leading cause of being limited was found to be stress, depression or anxiety.

Read the full text of the 2012 Cuyahoga Community Health Needs Assessment below: