The health rankings among counties nationwide published recently by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute determined Philadelphia as the unhealthiest county in the state. 2016 County Health Rankings released on Wednesday are based on two categories: health outcomes and health factors.
The health outcomes took for the study mean the results and the health factors signify the local elements in the environment that affect people either for good, or bad. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, it ranked 67th of the 67 counties in the state, meaning the very bottom of the results in this year’s health rankings. The results were also devastating for Michigan, as its Wayne County was also ranked last in health outcomes.
The 2016 County Health Rankings that take place in the United States measure a widely vast number of factors in order to verify an informed and well-based survey for which county is the healthiest and so on. The vital health factors considered by the rankings include obesity numbers, smoking rates, high-school-graduation rates, access to healthy food, air, and water quality and many more.
Catlin claims that even though Philadelphia was at the bottom in all seven years of the ranking, it has proven to make progress since the health rankings started the study to determine the counties’ health prospect.
There’s always room for improvement
For instance, the city’s premature death rate has dropped significantly in comparison with about 20 years ago, and this is undoubtedly a sign of improvement in Philadelphia. The results from 2016 County Health Rankings appear to indicate that living in big cities shows a prolonged life span compared to people wanting to live in the country.
According to the study’s led author Bridget Catlin, if a person wants to stay in better shape and stay healthier longer, he or she needs to move to the big city, in a report to CNN.
“Urban residents definitely have better access to health care, but there’s far more to good health than just that,” said Bridget Catlin, author of this year’s County Health Rankings study. “Urban can offer more recreation facilities and more safe options.”
Source: Detroit News