County Health Rankings Show That There Is More to Health Than Health Care

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin released the new County Health Rankings today. The model for the rankings " is grounded in the belief that programs and policies implemented at the local, state, and federal levels have an impact on the variety of factors that, in turn, determine the health outcomes for communities across the nation."

These ranking are like an annual checkup for the country  -- you can look on the website and find the ranking for health of every county nationwide, not just on average lifespan and mortality, but also on factors like access to healthy foods, obesity and smoking rates, and air pollution levels.   

The Rankings allow anyone nationwide to get a snapshot of how healthy their county is, and how it stacks up to others.      

Check this out: In addition to the Rankings themselves, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has produced an interactive calculator app that explores the relationship between education and health in any county nationwide. The calculator lets you raise and lower the education rate or average income in a county, and see how the change would be predicted to affect mortality.  For instance: if adults in Wyandotte, Kansas – where 39% have some college education – had the same education levels as the top county in the state – Johnson at 78% -- more than one out of three deaths (38%) could be averted per year.

[KVT]