Of North Carolina’s 100 counties, New Hanover County ranks 10th in overall health, according to a nationwide study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Such statistics are noted in the county’s “State of the County Health Report” for 2012, released earlier this month. The annual report is turned in to the state at the end of each year, hence its recent release.
The nationwide study, called the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project, ranks counties according to “health outcomes,” meaning how long people live and how healthy they feel while alive, and “health factors,” meaning behaviors such as smoking, access to clinical care, socioeconomic factors and physical environment.
New Hanover’s ranking of 10th in both categories is lower than in previous years. In 2011, the county ranked eighth in health outcomes and fourth in health factors. In 2010, the rankings were sixth and seventh, respectively.
In the same study, which was published in April 2012, Pender County ranked 28th in health outcomes—mortality and morbidity—and 44th in factors—such things as obesity, physical inactivity and excessive drinking.
Brunswick County ranked 47th and 33rd respectively, while neighboring Columbus County ranked the lowest in the state—100 out of 100—in mortality and morbidity and 91st in health factors.
While New Hanover County improved its ranking in behaviors such as smoking, meaning less instance of smoking in adults, its clinical care ranking—care for uninsured; access to primary care physicians—decreased from 2011, from a ranking of 4 to 10.
Socioeconomic factors, such as unemployment and children in poverty, also lowered in rank—from 11 to 22—as did physical environment—from 11 to 30—the latter gauging such things as air pollution and access to fast-food restaurants.
Joshua Swift, deputy health director for New Hanover County, said the changes in rankings have more to do with changes in how the study is conducted than with any particular change in county practices or facilities. Some categories are measured according to different factors from previous years, contributing to some fluctuations, he said.
For example, Swift said, “In 2011, they quit using liquor stores and they added parks” as factors. “So that helped us greatly. Then in 2012, they added fast-food restaurants. And that’s just in one area, in physical environment.
“We’re happy we’re still in the top ten percent of the counties. No one wants to go down in the rankings,” he said. “Obviously the health department always wants to look at ways to improve the health of our citizens, whether it’s through policy changes, whether it’s through environmental changes.”
Swift said there was no one issue or trend that the study revealed as a cause for concern, but he did note increasing numbers in some areas, such as excessive drinking and adult obesity.
“We are seeing the excessive drinking and obesity creeping up. Those are definite issues,” he said. “I don’t see that we’re getting drastically worse in any health outcomes, but we are seeing a gradual increase in drinking and obesity.
“It’s not a perfect tool for measuring health,” Swift said of the study. “But it’s a good way to get your attention.”
Other numbers showed adult smoking decreased two percentage points to 20 percent—below the state average of 22 percent, but above the national benchmark of 14 percent. Excessive drinking—18 percent—remained well above the state and national averages of 13 and 8 percent, respectively.
Sexually transmitted infections—previously measured as the rate of chlamydia per 100,000 population; now measured as all STIs—decreased in New Hanover from 451 in 2011 to 340 in 2012—below the state rate of 445, though significantly higher than the national benchmark of 84.
In addition to such statistics, the county’s health report includes steps the county intends to take to address issues identified as priority health concerns, such as obesity, unintentional poisonings, underage drinking and communicable diseases.
The report can be viewed in its entirety here. The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project can also be viewed at countyhealthrankings.org.
Jonathan Spiers can be reached at (910) 772-6313 or [email protected].
