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| New national County Health Rankings report gives Kentuckians a local health snapshot |
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By Jamie Vinson-Sturgill
Advocate managing editor
A first-ever County Health Rankings report was released recently by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide Kentuckians and citizens throughout the U.S. a county-by-county snapshot of the overall health of their communities.
The County Health Rankings are the first to rank the overall health of the counties in all 50 states by using a standard formula to measure how healthy people are and how long they live. Counties were given two overall rankings, one for health outcomes—which represent how healthy a county is—and one for health factors, which looks at what influences the health of a county, according to a release.
For health outcomes, Montgomery County ranked 69 out of 120 Kentucky counties. In the health factors category, Montgomery received a ranking of 52.
“I think one of more interesting rankings in this report is the health factors ranking,” said Pam Spradling, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Health Department. “We were ranked 52nd overall, which is not bad. When we break down the areas that were looked at in determining this ranking, we do see some areas of concern.”
To come up with ranking, researchers looked at four areas: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and the physical environment of the area.
“We did really well in the physical environment area. This included measures of environmental quality and the built environment, which is a term we use to look at building and changes in the environment that can have a positive influence on the health of a community. This would include things like adequate facilities for parks and recreation, neighborhoods that are walkable, etc.,” Spradling said. “I think we have done a good job of that in this community as is evidenced by our ranking of fifth in the state.
“We should commend those who have been responsible for that,” Spradling added. “There is always room for improvement. We know there are things we need but we have a lot in that respect and it really helped our ranking in this area.”
As far as clinical care is concerned, Montgomery County ranked 28th in the state.
“In looking at clinical care, researchers looked at both access to care and the quality of care, “Spradling said. “We did OK here, but we know that there are gaps in the services that are provided in our community. We currently have no inpatient mental health facility in this community and it is greatly needed here.
“Right now our folks have to go out of state sometimes for this kind of care, especially for services for children and that is unfortunate,” Spradling added. “It puts an unnecessary burden on families who desperately need help but cannot get it in this area. Montgomery County is designated by the federal government as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for mental health services.”
The areas of concern in regard to the health factors rankings of the report are health behaviors and social and economic factors, the health department says.
The county received a 76th ranking in the health behaviors category, which considered adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking, teen birth rate, etc. In the social and economic factors category, Montgomery ranked 76th as well. This category looked at high school graduation, college degrees, unemployment, children in poverty, inadequate social support, etc.
“Certainly, we know the economy has suffered and as a result our residents and our community have suffered. Any time people lose jobs, their access to health care can suffer due to loss of insurance or just money to pay for medicine or treatment not covered by insurance,” Spradling told the Advocate.
Always of great concern is the morbidity and mortality residents suffer from chronic disease, which is often related to lifestyle and behaviors, the health department says. The county ranked 59th in the mortality category and 79th in morbidity.
The 76th ranking for health behaviors, a category Spradling reiterated looked at tobacco use, diet and exercise, alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors, shows that “we have a lot of work to do to continue to educate local residents about the dangers of these behaviors and their direct correlation to the high rates of chronic disease that we see throughout the region.”
Nothing in the report was surprising, Spradling said.
“Most of the data just validates other data that we already have and shows us that we are basically on the right track as far as having identified the health care issues that we need to address in this community and we will continue to seek funding and develop strategies to address these issues,” Spradling told the Advocate. “We certainly don’t do this work alone. We work with many community partners and we are all in this together.”
Montgomery County has made progress over the past few years and we will continue to move forward for a healthier Montgomery County, Spradling stressed.
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