Health rankings report shows how Southwest Georgia fares

ALBANY — While not too many surprises appear in a recent health rankings report, indications are there is still work to be done to improve the health of many Southwest Georgia residents.

Forsyth County ranks healthiest in Georgia and nearby Early County is the least healthy county in the state, the sixth annual County Health Rankings report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute showed.

The rankings are a snapshot comparing the health of nearly every county in the nation. The local level data allows each state to see how its counties compare on 30 factors influencing health including education, housing, violent crime, jobs, diet and exercise.

“Where you live affects your health,” said Dr. Jacqueline Grant, director of the Southwest Public Health District based in Albany. “Many factors go into it (including health behaviors and environment).”

The five healthiest counties in Georgia, starting with most healthy, are Forsyth, followed by Gwinnett, Fayette, Cobb and Oconee. The five counties in the poorest health, starting with least healthy, are Early, Taliaferro, Warren, Randolph and Crisp, the report said.

For the Southwest Public Health District — which includes Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Mitchell, Miller, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas and Worth counties — there were not too many surprises stemming from the report.

“The health outcomes in our area are pretty stable,” Grant said. ” They may have changed a little, but there are no big fluctuations.”

The existence of issues pertaining to quality of life, physical and mental health and premature death have not been lost on public health officials in Southwest Georgia. One such example is Terrell County, where the report showed the premature death measurement to be at 10,289 — which was calculated by years of potential life lost before age 75 per a 100,000 population — in addition to a low birth weight of 16.1 percent, a 35 percent adult obesity rate and a sexually transmitted infection measure — calculated by the number of newly diagnosed chlamydia cases per a 100,000 population — of 1,139.

“These are things (we have been trying to work on),” Grant said. “Socioeconomic problems are hard for public health to address … (the report) is telling in many ways, but there are not many surprises to us.”

The report also looks at distribution in income and the links between income levels and health, with higher income levels generally showing better health statistics. Another one of the counties in the metro Albany, Lee County, is among those most well off, but still has an adult smoking rate of 23 percent and an adult obesity rate of 32 percent.

“They are more economically well off, but there is still work to do,” Grant said.

In overall health outcome rankings, out of the 159 counties, Dougherty came in at 115, Terrell at 146, Lee at 24, Worth at 84 and Baker at 57, the report said.

“The County Health Rankings have helped galvanize communities across the nation to improve health,” said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF president and CEO. “Solutions and innovation are coming from places as diverse as rural Williamson, West Virginia in the heart of Appalachia to urban New Orleans; they are engaging business, public health, education, parents, and young people to build a Culture of Health.”

Nationally, this year’s rankings show that the healthiest counties in each state have higher college attendance, fewer preventable hospital stays and better access to parks and gyms. The least healthy counties in each state have more smokers, more teen births and more alcohol related car crash deaths.

The alcohol related driving death rates in metro Albany is a factor Grant said was particularly interested in addressing in addition to smoking and obesity rates, as it has not traditionally been a focus for public health. Rates in metro Albany varied by county, with Dougherty at 8 percent, Baker at 40 percent, Lee at 26 percent, Worth at 14 percent and Terrell at 17 percent.

“That’s striking,” she said. “(That is) a disparity that we can do messaging on.”

Teen pregnancy rates, birth weight and sexually transmitted disease rates are also some things Grant said public health would continue to do messaging on to help improve on the numbers.

“Sometimes we talk about data casually … these things really are a matter of life and death,” she said. “You can really save lives. There is not a lot of new things we aren’t already addressing, but we can’t ignore the fact that people are dying prematurely.

“(This data) doesn’t show (all) disparities. There are also racial disparities embedded in data … so we have to be mindful of that as well. This is also a factor that needs to be addressed; sometimes there are gender disparities.”

Highlights from the reported included a drop in premature death rates, with Fulton County plummeting by 22 percent based on data from 2004-2006 and 2010-2012. One out of four children in the U.S. lives in poverty, with child poverty rates more than twice as high in the unhealthiest counties in each state. Violent crime rates, which affect health, well-being and stress levels, are highest in the Southwest, Southeast and Mississippi Delta Regions, the report showed.

Also, unemployment rates are 1.5 times higher in the least healthy counties in each state as they are in the healthiest counties, the report said.

“In the six years since the County Health Rankings began, we’ve seen them serve as a rallying point for change,” said Bridget Catlin, co-director of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. “Communities are using the Rankings to inform their priorities as they work to build a Culture of Health.”

The rankings are available at www.countyhealthrankings.org.