County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Now in their fourth year, the County Health Rankings show that how long and how well people live depends on multiple factors. They also help to lay the groundwork for the health improvement efforts of government officials, business leaders, and citizens across the country.
Some national trends this year show:
• Child poverty rates have not improved since 2000, with more than one in five children living in poverty. • Violent crime has decreased by almost 50 percent over the past two decades. • The counties where people don’t live as long and don’t feel as well mentally or physically have the highest rates of smoking, teen births, and physical inactivity, as well as more preventable hospital stays. • Teen birth rates are more than twice as high in the least healthy counties than in the healthiest counties.
This year the rankings are easier to use than ever with interactive maps and new county-level trend graphs detailing changes over time for several measures, including children in poverty, unemployment, and quality of care. Explore the County Health Rankings at www.countyhealthrankings.org.
We know that much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor’s office—in our schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program creates solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities, focusing on specific factors that affect health, such as education and income. Having health insurance and quality healthcare are important to our health, but we need leadership and action beyond healthcare. Ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, the County Health Rankings illustrate what we know when it comes to what’s making people sick or healthy. Roadmaps to Health shows what we can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation collaborates with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute to bring this groundbreaking program to cities, counties and states across the nation. Six communities were awarded the RWJF Roadmaps to Health Prize in honor of their outstanding work to help people live healthier lives. Could your community apply any of these innovative policy and environmental improvements to enable people to make healthier choices?
See what the winning communities are doing to improve health:
Each of the communities were awarded $25,000 to continue their journeys toward better health. The RWJF Roadmaps to Health Prize was launched this year to further the work of the County Healthy Rankings & Roadmaps program, which aims to educate the public and policy-makers on the multiple factors that influence community health—such as education, economic conditions, and the physical environment—and to provide solutions that will improve community health. More » Making it Easier to Find What Works for Health NACCHO members will be glad to learn about the latest release from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: What Works for Health, an online searchable menu of policies and programs focusing on factors that make communities healthier places to live, learn, work and play. Because evidence matters when it comes to developing and implementing solutions to problems that affect communities, each of the programs included in What Works for Health is given an evidence rating. The highest-rated programs and policies have been shown to work. What Works for Health is easy to use. Local leaders can choose a health factor of interest (i.e., tobacco use, employment, access to health care, environmental quality, etc.) and browse through the evidence ratings for particular programs, policies, or system changes that address the particular health factor of interest. Please share this new resource with your colleagues and social media followers: www.countyhealthrankings.org/what-works-for-health. Send questions to Angela Russell, Community Engagement Lead, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, at angela.russell@match.wisc.edu. |