Las Animas County ranks 53 out of the 57 counties in Colorado in health rankings, according to a recent survey. Still, the county ranks highly in the quality of its environment.
The rankings, published online at www.countyhealthrankings.org by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are designed to “help counties understand what influences how healthy residents are and how long they will live,” according to its authors. The rankings look at a variety of measures that the researchers believe affect and indicate health conditions, such as the rate of people dying before age 75, access to healthier foods, air pollution levels, rates of smoking, obesity and teen births, and even high school graduation rates and income levels.
The study includes each of the 50 states. In Colorado seven of the 57 counties have no ranking because there is insufficient data. Kiowa County is the nearest county to Las Animas County that is unranked. Among nearby counties, Huerfano County ranks 57th, placing it at the bottom in health outcomes, while Baca County ranks 37th. Otero County ranks 52nd in the state while Pueblo County is ranked 49th. Castilla County is ranked at 43rd among the state’s counties, and Bent County ranks 50th in health outcomes.
Researchers synthesized information from a variety of national data sources to create the rankings. Data came from places including the National Center for Health Statistics and other units of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare — using Medicare claims data — and the American Community Survey for 2005-2009. In addition to examining information about mortality rates and number of days people report being in poor or fair health (morbidity), researchers looked at factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.
The different categories are given varying weight in how each figured into the formula to achieve a county’s overall health ranking, with mortality and morbidity rates having the greatest weight, and physical environment the least weight.
Las Animas County ranked at number 30 among Colorado counties in physical environment, which featured categories such as clean air, access to healthy foods and access to recreational facilities. Las Animas County comes in at number 50 among Colorado counties in the state’s rankings when it comes to morbidity measures such as how often residents feel they are in good health, physically and mentally.
Meanwhile the county ranks last in the state when it comes to health behaviors, which include adult smoking and obesity, excessive drinking, motor vehicle crash death rate, sexually transmitted infections, and teen birth rate. The county ranks better in two areas, ranking 42nd in clinical care and 48th in the area of social and economic factors. Clinical care factors include the number of primary care providers to the availability of diabetic and mammography screening to how many adults have health insurance. Social and economic factors range from education levels of residents to unemployment rates to single-parent households to children in poverty.
Douglas County had the best health ranking in the state, while nearby Crowley County ranked 56th.
“The rankings really show us with solid data that there is a lot more to health than health care,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, director of the County Health Rankings project and Associate Dean for Public Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “Where we live, learn, work and play affect our health, and we need to use the information from the rankings to shine a spotlight on where we need to improve so we can take action to address our problems.”
To help counties translate the rankings into action, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is launching a new program to help communities improve the health of their residents. Under this program — part of an initiative called Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health — grants to as many as 14 communities throughout the country will be offered to strengthen broad-based community efforts to improve health.
“It’s hard to lead a healthy life if you don’t live in a healthy community,” said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer of the foundation. “The County Health Rankings are an annual check-up for communities to know how healthy they are and where they can improve. We hope that policymakers, businesses, educators, public health departments and community residents will use the rankings to develop solutions to help people live healthier lives.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on health and health care issues facing America. It describes itself as the “nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans,” working with a “diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.”
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute is the “focal point” within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health “for translating public health and health policy research into policy and practice.”