Freeborn County is in bottom half of new statewide health rankings

Published 10:58 am Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Freeborn County ranks 61st out of 85 Minnesota counties measured for overall health outcomes, according to a national county-by-county health ranking published Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In the document — which is the first-ever set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in the nation — counties are ranked within each state on how healthy people are and how long they live.

According to the report, which compares counties within each state — the people of Jackson County are the healthiest in Minnesota, while the people of Lake County are the least healthy. The counties of Cook and Traverse were omitted from the report because of insufficient data.

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The report ranks “health outcomes,” or how healthy a county is, along with “health factors,” or what influences the health in the county. Some of these factors include smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty.

Southern Minnesota counties

The following are the rankings of health outcomes and health factors for nearby counties, out of 85 Minnesota counties measured:

Steele: 3, 12

Olmsted: 9, 1

Freeborn: 61, 64

Blue Earth: 18, 19
Faribault: 46, 50

Winona: 10, 27

Waseca: 30, 24

Mower: 43, 51

Northern Iowa counties

The following are the rankings of health outcomes and health factors for nearby Iowa counties, out of 99 Iowa counties measured:

Winnebago: 80, 27

Worth: 50, 50

The data for each factor included in the report was obtained as early as 2000 to as late as 2008, depending on the factor, the report states.

Thus, the report does not include any changes that may have come about last year because of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project in Albert Lea, which was aimed at helping residents live longer, healthier lives. In the Vitality Project, participants gained an average of 3.1 years life expectancy, lost an average of 2.6 pounds, reported eating more vegetables and seafood and reported less days of depression, to name a few of the changes.

Freeborn County Public Health Director Lois Ahern said when she first looked at the report she, like many others, first noticed the health outcomes rating for the county.

“But we need to look at the entire report,” she said. “Look beyond that one rating and look at some of the other rankings, the rankings of health factors and our access to care.

“These kind of reports are always good, but the caution is to look in more detail.”

She said there weren’t any big surprises — as most area health officials are aware that the county’s residents are statistically average as far as heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

In fact, that’s one of the main reasons the AARP and Blue Zones leaders picked Albert Lea for the pilot Vitality Project. Now other cities are interested.

Specifics of the report

The report states Freeborn County came in 61st for health outcomes, or how healthy a county is, and 64th for health factors, which are what influence the health of the county.

Health outcomes

The health outcomes rank is made up of a mortality rank — representing the length of life, based on a measure of premature death, or the years of potential life lost prior to age 75 — and a morbidity rank. The morbidity rank includes measures of self-reported fair or poor health, poor physical health days, poor mental health days, and the percent of births with low birth weight.

Freeborn County was 42nd in its mortality rank and 75th in its morbidity rank.

Health factors

The health factors ranking is based on four factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. Each of these factors contains additional issues that the report studied.

— Health behaviors included smoking, diet and exercise, alcohol use and risky sex behavior. Freeborn County ranked 79th out of 85 counties in this category.

— Clinical care includes measures of access to care and quality of care. The county ranked 33 out of 85 counties for clinical care.

— Social and economic factors include measures of education, employment, income, family and social support, and community safety. Freeborn County ranked 46th out of 85 counties for clinical care.

— The physical environment includes measures of environmental quality. The county ranked 77th out of 85 counties for this measure.

What does this mean for Freeborn County?

Ahern said the county health rankings report will be another tool the county can use to improve the community.

She noted she thinks doing so is “a great opportunity” to tie into all the work that was done last year with the Vitality Project. It also ties in well with the Statewide Health Improvement Program that all Minnesota counties are working on and the Pioneering Healthy Communities that the Albert Lea Family Y is involved with.

And that’s exactly what the researchers and makers of the report are hoping happens.

“We hope this kind of checkup will mobilize community leaders to take action and invest in programs and policy changes that make their counties healthier places to live,” said Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in a press release.

To view the full report, go to www.countyhealthrankings.org/minnesota.