Clark County's Health Rankings, Part 2
Friday, April 1st, 2016 -- 11:17 AM
-A new county health rankings report was recently released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.All though there are clear opportunities for improvement, Clark County has assets and resources that can help it strive to be a healthier county. I spoke with the Director of the Clark County Health Department, Bob Leischow, and he explained some other factors that are looked at to determine the rankings.
"Though the rankings indicate a pretty consistent ranking for Clark County in regards to Health Factors for the past few years, a comparison against the 2013 reports suggests relatively significant improvement since then. The rankings break down health factors in four categories, those being: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and environmental factors."
"Though the reported indicators suggest strengths in certain areas like reported physical inactivity, relative low number of teen births, the high school graduation rate, the percentage of children in a single-parent household, and percentage of people driving alone to work, one thing we know in public health is that social determinants of health, which are largely conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, play, and age that come with risks and are known drivers of one quality of life and health outcomes."
Bob also stated that with our “place,” or what determines likely health behaviors, there’s a high percentage of youth and adults in poverty, a high percentage of adults without health insurance, reported concerns of food insecurity and more. This causes Clark County residents to risky health behaviors like smoking, over eating and excessive alcohol and/or drug use.
Coming up on Monday, we’ll hear about just a few of the initiatives/programs Clark County is doing or looking to do to help the county become healthier.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=16380
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.