Madison, Wis., and Princeton, N.J. – Riley County has the healthiest residents in Kansas and Cherokee County is the least healthy county in the state, according to the annual County Health Rankings, released today by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to the Rankings, residents of Cherokee County are nearly three times more likely to die a premature death than those in Riley County.
Saline County ranked 68th healthiest out of 98 counties.
This is the second year of the County Health Rankings, the most comprehensive report of its kind to rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states by using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live. The Rankings helps everyone see how where people live, learn, work and play influence how healthy they are and how long they live.
According to this year’s Rankings, the 10 healthiest counties in Kansas, starting with most healthy, are Riley, Johnson, Mitchell, Coffey, Ellis, Kingman, Pottawatomie, Douglas, Sheridan, McPherson. The 10 counties in the poorest health, starting with least healthy, are Cherokee, Montgomery, Wyandotte, Bourbon, Allen, Woodson, Elk, Wilson, Sherman, Crawford. The healthiest of Kansas’ 98 ranked counties are clustered in the northeast of the state; the least healthy counties are primarily in the southeast of Kansas.
Some highlights of what the Rankings show:
· The rate of premature death in Cherokee County is nearly three times that in Riley.
· 21% of adults in Cherokee County reported being in poor or fair health, compared to 8% in Riley.
· The rate of sexually transmitted infection in Riley County is more than three times that in Cherokee.
· The teen birth rate in Cherokee County is more than twice that in Riley.
“The Rankings help counties see what is affecting the health of their residents are so they can see where they are doing well, where they need to improve, and what steps they need to take as a community to remove barriers to good health,” says Patrick Remington, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Dean for Public Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The Rankings, available Marh 30 at 12:01 a.m. at www.countyhealthrankings.org, includes a snapshot of each county in Kansas with a color-coded map comparing each county’s overall health ranking. Researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health or “health outcomes” for Kansas by county: the rate of people dying before age 75, the percent of people who report being in fair or poor health, the numbers of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health, and the rate of low-birthweight infants.
The Rankings also looks at factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment. Among the many health factors they looked at: rates of adult smoking, adult obesity, excessive drinking among adults, and teenage births; the number of uninsured adults, availability of primary care providers, and preventable hospital stays; rates of high school graduation, adults who have attended college, children in poverty; and community safety; access to healthy foods and air pollution levels.
“The County Health Rankings help everyone see that much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor’s office and where we live matters to our health,” says Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The good news is that there are things counties can do right away to help their residents lead healthier lives. We hope this second annual release of County Health Rankings data will spur all sectors – government, business, community and faith-based groups, education and public health – to work together to find solutions and take action and implement programs and policy changes to improve health.”
To help counties translate the Rankings into action, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey today said the Foundation was launching a new program to help communities improve the health of their residents. Under this new program—part of an initiative called Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health—RWJF will provide grants to up to 14 communities around the country to strengthen broad-based community efforts to improve health.
For more information, please visit www.countyhealthrankings.org.