Improvements Needed For Hendry-Glades

From the Hendry-Glades Health Department

 

Recently, a report was released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute which ranks the health of the people in Florida's 67 counties. The report provides the same breakdown for all 50 states.  The study provides a snapshot of how healthy people are considered in one county by comparing their overall health to people in other counties within their state.

 

The 2010 County Health Rankings report looks at a number of factors that can influence a person's overall health which can include health behaviors, quality of neighborhoods, access to physical and recreational activities, education, income, employment, teen births, crime-rates, smoking, drinking, premature death, air quality, access to healthy foods, community safety and many others. This report shows that a lot of factors can be correlated with one another.

 

 

The rankings can be used by public-health, healthcare providers and community leaders to measure the health of their county to see how well they are doing and where improvements may be needed. The data used in the report includes survey data calculated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data from the U.S. Census, birth and death records, rates of sexually transmitted diseases, Medicare-claims data and several other resources which are all listed on their website. http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/ranking-methods

Counties within our region: Hendry, Glades, Lee, Collier, Okeechobee, Desoto, Highlands, Charlotte Sarasota and Manatee. The results are listed below ("Best to Lowest" rankings in each category):

 

Health Factors Rankings:

 

Health behaviors (smoking, obesity, binge drinking, traffic deaths, teen births, Chlamydia infections):

Sarasota-2^nd, Collier-6^th, Manatee-13^th, Highlands-16^th, Charlotte-19^th, Lee-27^th, Desoto-36^th, Hendry-45^th, Glades-53^rd,

and Okeechobee-56^th

 

Social and economic (education, unemployment, childhood poverty, single-parent families, violent crime): Sarasota-12^th, Collier-21^st, Charlotte-22^nd, Lee-29^th, Manatee-41^st, Highlands-47^th, Glades-55^th, Okeechobee-58^th, Desoto-62, and Hendry-67^th

 

Clinical care (uninsured adults, number of doctors, diabetic screening, and preventable hospitalizations): Sarasota-2^nd, Manatee-18^th, Charlotte-20^th, Collier-30^th, Lee-32^nd, Highlands-44^th, Glades-62^nd,

Desoto-63^rd, Hendry-65^th, and Okeechobee-67^th

 

 

Physical environment (air quality, access to healthy food, liquor stores):

Collier-5^th, Okeechobee-13^th, Sarasota-18^th, Lee-19^th, Charlotte-20^th, Hendry-24^th, Manatee-31^st,

Desoto-53^rd, and Highlands-55^th

 

Morbidity (low birth-weight babies, self-reported health status): Sarasota-1^st, Collier-3^rd, Desoto-13^th, Hendry-14^th, Lee-16^th, Manatee-20^th, Charlotte-28^th, Highlands-33^rd, Glades-39^th, and Okeechobee-47^th

 

Health Outcomes Rankings:

 

Mortality (premature deaths): Collier-4^th, Sarasota-13^th, Charlotte-26^th, Manatee-28^th, Lee-31^st,

Desoto-41^st, Highlands-42^nd, Hendry-56^th, Okeechobee-58^th, and Glades-61^st

 

Mortality (premature deaths): Collier-4^th, Sarasota-13^th, Charlotte-26^th, Manatee-28^th, Lee-31^st,

Desoto-41^st, Highlands-42^nd, Hendry-56^th, Okeechobee-58^th, and Glades-61^st

In the 2011 County Health Rankings, Hendry and Glades Counties ranked low on overall health factors

(Hendry-61 out of 67 and Glades-57 out of 67) Hendry and Glades Counties also ranked low on overall health outcomes (Hendry-39 out of 67 and Glades-58 out of 67)

The rankings also indicate that Hendry County is at-risk for poor health when it comes to social and economic factors that affect health, such as poverty rates and unemployment, where Hendry County  ranked the worst (last place at 67^th). Hendry County has the highest unemployment rate in the state.

The overall state ranking shows that Collier County ranked the healthiest and Union County (a northern rural county) ranked the worst in the state.