Health Statistics by County

March 30, 2011 6:54 AM

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has sponsored the most detailed ever look at county-level American health data. Access to the data--including a ranking of health in each state by county--was made available today at CountyHealthRanking.org

Curiously, there is no cross-cutting analysis of best and worst counties nationwide, however.

posted by jefficator (15 comments total)

Interesting. The state-level view of Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky for example gives a visual impression that it's better to live north-ish. Looking at Calif, Texas, and Florida however makes it look that it's localized around where the wealth/population is concentrated.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:26 AM on March 30, 2011

it's better to live north-ish.

No, it's better to be healthy. Those people live northish.
posted by DU at 7:50 AM on March 30, 2011

I... I just GIS'd all over myself. Thank you.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 7:55 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I... I just GIS'd all over myself. Thank you.

Richard Wood Johnson foundation?
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:10 AM on March 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

Wow, I just looked up Clark County, NV (where Las Vegas is, and where I live currently). Jesus fracking crispy nuts.


Premature death 8,315 National Average: 5,564

Poor or fair health 18% National Average: 10%

Excessive drinking 19% National Average: 8%

Sexually transmitted infections 416 National Average: 83

Teen birth rate 60 National Average: 22

Primary care providers 1,244:1 National Average: 631:1

Preventable hospital stays 62 National Average: 52

Violent crime rate 865 National Average: 100

Access to healthy foods 67% National Average: 92%


Crapola. That's it, I'm moving.
posted by daq at 8:46 AM on March 30, 2011

HOLY CRAP. Baltimore City, where I live:
Sexually transmitted infections - 1,322. National Average - 83. Maryland - 439.

Sheeeeeeit.
posted by capnsue at 9:40 AM on March 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

daq, if I read it correctly, that's not the national average. It's the 90th percentile which is a pretty high standard in my opinion. Perhaps an expert would be able to explain.
posted by redyaky at 9:41 AM on March 30, 2011

"To easily visualize the distributions of Health Outcomes and Health Factors across a state, we provide color-coded maps grouped by quartile."

Comparing Texas:
Rank 1-56
Rank 57-112
Rank 113-167
Rank 168-223

And California:
Rank 1-14
Rank 15-28
Rank 29-42
Rank 43-56

Does this mean what I think it means? The entire range of health care in California is equal to the top quartile of Texas?

If so, that would be seriously damning. I know that poverty in Texas (where I grew up) is much, much worse than in California (where I live now). But the magnitude of the difference in health/care is astonishing.

I am not criticizing Texas specifically, but the political and cultural outlooks appear to have significant, measurable, and very real direct impacts on quality of life issues. The United States as a whole will be moving much more in the direction of Texas if the political right gets it's way. That's not really a surprise - but it's a surprise to me to see how huge the difference is in practice.

And with Texas budget issues now playing out, it stands to get much worse there as well.
posted by Xoebe at 9:42 AM on March 30, 2011

Does this mean what I think it means?

I do not think it means what you think it means.

I think it means California has 56 counties and Texas has 223.

I always thought KY (120) was the state with the 2nd most counties, but then I saw Georgia (156). Both have Hazzards. This list has slightly different numbers.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:50 AM on March 30, 2011

HOLY CRAP. Baltimore City, where I live:
Sexually transmitted infections - 1,322. National Average - 83. Maryland - 439.

Man, I'm not even going to take my pants off in the shower anymore.
posted by electroboy at 10:17 AM on March 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

redyaky, you know, you are correct. Those should be the national benchmark. Though, even with that, knowing that we fall so far below said benchmark is still very depressing. It also explains why there are so many disparities between living here versus living in Charlottesville, VA (Albemarle County). Here's just a few things that were shocking.

Albemarle:
Primary care providers 364:1

compared to -
Clark:
Primary care providers 1,244:1

Also, the violent crime statistics are staggering.
Clark, NV: 865
Albemarle, VA: 166

That's just... wow. I'm out of here.
posted by daq at 11:02 AM on March 30, 2011

capnsue: "HOLY CRAP. Baltimore City, where I live:
Sexually transmitted infections - 1,322. National Average - 83. Maryland - 439.

Sheeeeeeit."

Could have something to do with this:

High school graduation 55%
Some college 56%
Unemployment 10.2%
Children in poverty 25%
Inadequate social support 30%
Single-parent households 62%

Yay, my city!
posted by HumanComplex at 12:09 PM on March 30, 2011

...and don't forget the 10% heroin addiction rate. That doesn't help us any neither.
posted by electroboy at 12:20 PM on March 30, 2011

HOLY CRAP. Baltimore City, where I live:
Sexually transmitted infections - 1,322. National Average - 83. Maryland - 439.

I forgot if i heard it here or second hand from a JHU public health professor (Well I took the oomph out of that), but apparently there was a network analysis done on the STD rate, and about 90% of the spread of STDs in Baltimore could be traced to something like 15 super-vectors.
posted by stratastar at 12:53 AM on March 31, 2011

Man, that's like some sort of supervillian. I have a friend who's a public health geographer at Hopkins, I'll see if he knows anything about it.
posted by electroboy at 6:26 AM on March 31, 2011