Benton, Washington Counties Ranked Healthiest in State

Benton County is the healthiest county in Arkansas for the fourth straight year.

Washington County is second on the annual County Health Rankings.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute released the fourth annual report Wednesday.

On the Web

Rankings, Roadmaps

To see full County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, go to countyhealthranking….

The two counties ranked near the top of most categories comparing Arkansas’ 75 counties, but remained below national benchmarks.

“It’s great we are making improvements, but we still have a ways to go,” said Julie Petree, manager of marketing and communications for the United Way of Northwest Arkansas.

Petree said the high county ranking brings mixed feelings because of how low the state ranks nationally. She said it’s not that great to be best of the worst.

Arkansas ranked 48th in the 2012 America’s Health Ranking by the United Health Foundation.

“It’s yeah on one hand, but sadness on the other,” she said.

The adult smoking rate is one area where the local counties rise above the state rate but fall short of the national levels.

The smoking rate is 13 percent in the U.S. and 23 percent in Arkansas. The rates in Benton and Washington counties are 18 percent and 20 percent respectively.

The trend is repeated in the rate of teen births, adult obesity, physical inactivity, children in poverty and violent crime rate.

Patrick Remington, associate dean for Public Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said a trend mirrored in states across the country is suburban areas are the healthiest and urban areas are the least healthy.

At A Glance

County Health Rankings

This is the fourth year the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released the County Health Rankings. Benton and Washington counties consistently score high in Arkansas’ 75-county ranking. Below are how the local counties ranked within the state over the past three years.

The County Health Rankings are broken into two areas: health outcomes and health factors. Health outcomes measures length and quality of life.

Health factors include:

-Health behaviors includes smoking, obesity, inactivity, drinking and teen birth rate.

-Clinical care is access to physicians and rate of health screenings.

-Social and economic factors include graduation, poverty and crime rates.

-Physical environment looks at pollution and access to recreation facilities and healthy foods.

Benton County Washington County

2013 2012 2011 2013 2012 2011

Health outcomes 1 1 1 2 2 2

Death before age 75 1 1 1 2 2 2

Quality of life 1 1 1 2 3 2

Health factors 1 1 2 4 4 3

Health behaviors 1 1 2 4 6 7

Clinical care 8 16 21 14 14 36

Social and economic factors 1 1 3 5 5 4

Physical environment 3 35 10 2 20 7

Source: County Health Rankings

“The thing you see in rural areas is there is a lot of variability,” he said. “One county may have a good economy and almost right next door you find a rural community that is at the bottom of the list.”

Counties just to the east of Benton and Washington counties include: Madison County ranked sixth, Carroll County 18th, Crawford County 23rd and Newton County 55th.

Many of Arkansas’ healthiest counties are in the state’s northwest corner. Rural Ouachita County in southern Arkansas ranked last. Many of the lowest ranking counties hug the state’s eastern border.

The County Health Rankings examine 25 factors that influence health, including rates of childhood poverty, rates of smoking, obesity levels, teen birth rates, access to physicians and dentists, rates of high school graduation and college attendance, access to healthy foods, levels of physical inactivity and percentages of children living in single-parent households.

Petree said many people don’t realize how interconnected things are that impact an area’s health and well-being.

“When a family is struggling in one area, they are most likely struggling in other areas as well,” she said. “For example, if they can’t pay their electric bill, they may also be behind on medical bills and not have money to buy groceries.”

The lowest rankings for Benton and Washington counties are in clinical care, coming in eighth and 14th respectively. Northwest Arkansas is short of medical professionals.

The national benchmark of the number of primary care physicians is one primary care physician for every 1,067 people. The state rate is one doctor for every 1,613 people.

There is one primary care physician for every 1,842 people in Benton County and one for every 1,398 in Washington County.

Dan McKay, chief executive officer of Northwest Health System, knows the challenges of recruiting physicians to the area. The health system recruited 25 new physicians in 2012 and is on track to hire 20 this year.

“Getting them to check out Northwest Arkansas can be challenging, but it’s an easy sell once we get them here,” McKay said. “And once they are here we can get them to stay.”

Dr. Joe Thompson, the state’s surgeon general and director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, previously said pay, lifestyle and retirement are three challenges the state faces in the doctor shortage.

“And we have an aging primary care physician population and we just are not getting replacements,” Thompson said.

Loy Bailey, administrator of the Benton County Health Department, said the key thing about the report, no matter where a county ranks, is to get the information out to the community.

“Then we can identify areas we can improve and use it as a catalyst for partnerships we have,” he said. “There is a willingness out there to work together as long as the information is available.”

Bailey will present findings from the report at the April 25 meeting of the Benton County Community Coalition. The monthly meeting is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in the auditorium of the Center for Nonprofits at St. Mary’s in Rogers.

The roadmaps part of the report provides ideas and examples of how to get a health initiative started.

“The County Health Roadmaps helps us take action by bringing people together from all walks of life,” Remington said.

Bailey said the roadmaps work for any community, regardless of size or ranking.

“There is really no excuse not to address these problems,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s all right there.”

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