County health prognosis?

By Stover E. Harger III

The South County Spotlight, Feb 24, 2010

Columbia County has high obesity, motor vehicle crash rate and low violent crimes compared to many other Oregon counties.

Illustration by Stover E. Harger III / The South County Spotlight

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A health checkup is in, and Columbia County has reason to celebrate.

But not too much.

There are still many areas in need of improvement, according to a new county vs. county healthiness ranking report – the first of its kind – that ranks our county as the 12th healthiest among 33 Oregon counties evaluated.

The report, conducted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is the first ever “health checkup” that examines not how the states rank against each other, but how counties in every state stack up.

Benton, followed by Washington and Clackamas counties, are at the top of the health heap, while Jefferson ranks as the least healthy county.

The fact that Columbia County barely missed the top 10 speaks well to certain healthy behaviors in the region, said Karen Ladd, county public health administer.

“I am actually pretty surprised and impressed that we look as good as we do,” she said. “We are not in the top 10, but we aren’t in the bottom 10, either,” Ladd said.

“And we are doing that without a hospital, yet.”

The report was commissioned to bring light to health issues in communities and point out where improvements could be made. Last week the study was brought before the Legislature in Salem so representatives could see how their districts fared.

In Columbia County, there are a number of ways the region is succeeding at healthy living, ranking 5th overall, for instance in “social and economic factors” which looks at factors, such as children in poverty, single-parent households and violent crime rates. Still, said Ladd, there are disappointments that need to be addressed. Adult obesity is at 30 percent (the Oregon average is 26 percent), 23 percent of adults smoke regularly (compared to the state average of 19 percent) and the motor vehicle crash death rate is slightly higher.

Katrina Hedberg, interim state epidemiologist for the Oregon Public Health Division said she worked with researchers over the last few months, providing them with county and state data on the number of indicators they used to make judgments on which counties are healthier than others. Data was generated between the years 2000 to 2008.

The researchers are some of the best in the field, Hedberg said, and the findings are not unexpected, but may still spur some healthy changes.

The report examined a number of factors in four categories – health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. Those factors include high school graduation rates, air pollution levels, the amount of people with Chlamydia and liquor store density.

Ladd said there are certainly things to work on and their needs to be some sit-down conversations in the county about where improvements are needed.

To view the full report, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org.

A snapshot of health

Here are some ways that Columbia County ranks up in terms of health in relation to the Oregon average from the recent County Health Rankings report.

Poor or fair health

Oregon: 15 percent

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