The 2014 County Health Rankings puts Benton, Washington, Faulkner, Saline and Pike counties at the top of the pack in overall health outcomes in Arkansas.
The report was released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Multiple health factors are analyzed in the report including alcohol and drug use, access to care, education, along with housing.
Benton County has ranked as the healthiest county in the state since the annual report started in 2010. Phillips County has ranked as the least healthiest county in four of the five reports. Other counties that ranked in the lowest five in the state include Ouachita, Mississippi, Lafayette and Poinsett.
Jan O’Neill is a community coach for County Health Rankings and Road-maps through the University of Wisconsin’s PopulationHealth Institute. She said the organization ranks counties to raise awareness to community health.
“We actually don’t ask people to focus on the ranks,” O’Neill said. “We want to get people’s attention and then get them to look at measures. Even if you had huge improvements your rank may not improve but your measures will certainly improve.”
For instance, Phillips County continually ranked as the least healthy county in the state but it has an upwardtrend for length of life, according to data in the report. The 2010 county ranking estimated that 15,305 people per every 100,000 in Phillips County died before the age of 75. The 2014 ranking estimates 14,286 per 100,000 had a premature death in the county.
O’Neill said measurements should also be examined in counties that are doing well in the state. The 2014 ranking shows Benton County had 6,504 people dieprematurely per 100,000. Yet, counties in the nation that are in the 90th percentile for overall health have an average 5,317 premature deaths per 100,000.
The Population Health Institute hopes that by publishing health data, communities will start looking at program and policy options that will improve the overall health in their region.
“Is everybody working together to really focus on the priority areas of improvement, including the people who teach our schools, people who pass laws, the families raising the children,” O’Neill said. “What can we do in our community?”
O’Neill said Arkansas has a large group of people working to improve health in the state. She said the Arkansas Hometown Health Improvement initiative through the Arkansas Department of Health is oneexample of this. The initiative has a health coalition in each county.
Linda Thompson, manager of the Northwest Hometown Health Improvement, said she works with 19 counties located in Northwest Arkansas. She said the goal of the initiative is to bring people together to improve health.
“We work in the schools and the communities and the cities, CEOs all the way down to volunteer grandmas,” Thompson said.
Grants through the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention is one example of how communities can come together, Thompson said. Grants to communities across the state have been used to offer healthy cooking classes, train cities on running farmers markets, along with funding the construction of community gardens and expand trail systems.
Western Grove, in Newton County was given nearlya $1,000 grant to implement farmers’ market training courses last year, the coalition’s website states. The training helped increase farmer participation in the market, expanding from three vendors to six after the training. Lake Village in Southeast Arkansas received a similar grant along with a half-dozen other communities in the state.
Kathryn Birkhead, creator of Growing Healthy Coalition in Springdale, said the city received a grant for about $1,000 in 2011 that was used to establish community gardens in the city. Money from the grant also was used to hold a health summit and connect city bike trails to schools.
The grant has helped the city work towards healthier outcomes, Birkhead said. She said connecting trails to schools have made them more accessible for more people in the community.
“When people are outside being active it creates more connection with neighbors,” Birkhead said.
O’Neill said her organization is also there to help communities connect withresources. It provides action plans, which they call road-maps, for communities to follow. It also ranks different options that communities can use based on effectiveness.
“We are able to offer free coaching assistance to individuals and communities all over the country,” O’Neill said. “Anyone can call and go through our website, we will answer their questions, we will call them back.”
A community’s healthis important for its future, O’Neill said. She said child obesity rates are high nationally. This could lead to an entire generation dying young, she said.
“Who knows what the potential loss is to our community when someone dies before the age of 75?” O’Neill said. “What is the potential loss to the community when a child dies at 10 from asthma? What could that child have brought to the community?”-
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/27/2014