SEATTLE — A new report ranking the relative healthiness of Washington communities makes some places in the state look better than others, but a researcher for the report being released today says no matter which county you live in, you’re probably healthier than residents of many other states.
“Overall, it seems like Washington … has created a really incredible culture of health,” said Angela Russell, an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Washington’s healthiest counties are consistently better than the national average on measurements like smoking, teen births and premature death. But the Washington counties ranked lowest in the County Health Rankings study from the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aren’t far behind.
For example, Whatcom, which is ranked in this report as the fifth healthiest county in Washington, is better than 90 percent of the nation in terms of premature death, low birth weight babies, adult obesity and other factors.
While Yakima County, ranked near the bottom of the Washington county list, it still does better than 90 percent of the nation in certain areas — mammograms and diabetic screening — and isn’t far behind in others — low birthrate babies and adult smoking.
In the areas where Yakima seems to be far behind the best counties in the nation, the county still has numbers some states would be envious of, Russell said.
According to the report, the five healthiest counties in Washington are San Juan, Kittitas, Island, Whitman and Whatcom. The five counties in poorest health are Ferry, Wahkiakum, Okanogan, Grays Harbor and Mason.
The two strongest predictors of county heath are the economics and how many citizens graduated from high school and went to college.
Russell is quick to point out that the rankings are not what this report is really about. The intention is to point out opportunities for improvement.
Every county has areas in which people could improve their health, and many of these are within the control of the community, Russell said.
For example, King County has a relatively high number for excessive drinking — 18 percent of King County residents report drinking more than four or five drinks on a single occasion in the past 30 days. Among the healthiest 10 percent of the nation, this is a problem for only 8 percent of the population.
Washington Health Secretary Mary Selecky said she’s not surprised that Washington statistics show the state’s citizens are doing pretty well across the state, because the statistics the report uses mostly come from her agency.
But Selecky cautions Washington residents not to sit back and enjoy their success.
“We’ve still got our work cut out for us,” she said, and she meant that literally.
Numbers can be deceptive, Selecky said, pointing out that death rates for heart disease and cancer are declining and the state’s obesity rate is lower than the national average.
But, she adds, obesity rates are increasing and those numbers have grown dramatically. Just 10 percent of Washington residents were obese in 1990 and 26 percent were obese in 2010.
“We’ve got to have folks paying attention to what they eat and moving around more,” Selecky said.
She would also like to see more people quit smoking, get their cholesterol and blood pressure checked and talk to their doctor about taking a baby aspirin every day to keep their blood flowing.
Of course, she wouldn’t complain if people also started eating a healthy breakfast, school lunches got healthier, people started taking the stairs, and they took advantage of preventative medical care.
Read the report
County Health Rankings: www.countyhealthrankings.org
Washington Department of Health Data: www.doh.wa.gov/Data/data.htm
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
