The annual County Health Rankings released last month by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute show that the "nation’s most rural areas rank dead last in a majority of the measurements used to evaluate the health status of U.S. counties," Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder.
"Noncore" counties, which are "located outside metro areas and have no towns of 10,000 residents or more, were last in 18 of 34 measurements used in the study," Marema writes. "That’s the worst record of any group of counties when they are sorted by urban-rural status." Noncore counties only ranked first in two categories, having less violent crime and fewer housing problems. (Yonder map of healthiest and least healthy counties)
The map above shows health outcomes. There is a separate rank, within each state, for the factors that contribute to outcomes. Those rankings are based 30 percent on
health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol use, diet and exercise, sexual
activity), 20 percent on clinical care (access to care and quality of
care), 40 percent on social and economic factors (education, employment,
income, family and social support, community safety) and 10 percent on
physical environment (air and water quality and housing and transit).
"At the request of the Daily Yonder, Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute ran an analysis of how rural counties stack up across the country," Marema writes. "Noncore counties ranked last in all seven of the clinical measurements, such as percentage of population without health insurance and the number of physicians, dentists and mental health professionals available to the county’s population on a per capita basis."
Noncore counties were last in several other categories, including the number of adults reporting fair or poor health (18.3 percent), the number of physically unhealthy days (an average of 4 in the last 30-day period) and premature death, Marema writes. Noncore counties were next to last in the number of mentally unhealthy days, averaging 3.6 in the last 30-day period.
Noncore counties also had the largest percentage of residents under 65 who lacked health insurance, at 19.1 percent, Marema writes. "Only 44 percent of noncore residents had access to exercise facilities, while 92.8 percent of the residents of large suburban counties did." (Read more)
"Noncore" counties, which are "located outside metro areas and have no towns of 10,000 residents or more, were last in 18 of 34 measurements used in the study," Marema writes. "That’s the worst record of any group of counties when they are sorted by urban-rural status." Noncore counties only ranked first in two categories, having less violent crime and fewer housing problems. (Yonder map of healthiest and least healthy counties)
"At the request of the Daily Yonder, Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute ran an analysis of how rural counties stack up across the country," Marema writes. "Noncore counties ranked last in all seven of the clinical measurements, such as percentage of population without health insurance and the number of physicians, dentists and mental health professionals available to the county’s population on a per capita basis."
Noncore counties were last in several other categories, including the number of adults reporting fair or poor health (18.3 percent), the number of physically unhealthy days (an average of 4 in the last 30-day period) and premature death, Marema writes. Noncore counties were next to last in the number of mentally unhealthy days, averaging 3.6 in the last 30-day period.
Noncore counties also had the largest percentage of residents under 65 who lacked health insurance, at 19.1 percent, Marema writes. "Only 44 percent of noncore residents had access to exercise facilities, while 92.8 percent of the residents of large suburban counties did." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment