Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

National health rankings in 6th year

La Plata County 11th in Colorado
STEVE LEWIS/Durango Herald file photo<br><br>Shawn Wells, left, and Kevin Mullikin finish the Durango Parks & Recreation Triathlon in 2012 at the Durango Community Recreation Center. La Plata County ranked as 11th most fit in Colorado.

The sixth annual Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national county health rankings found La Plata County residents the 11th fittest in the state.

Rankings are based on factors such as the number of primary-care physicians and mental health providers, obesity, smoking, exercise, the unemployment rate, percentage of high school graduates, low birthweight, long commutes, air pollution, violent crime, the number of children in poverty and length of life.

According to the rankings, which cover almost all counties in the country, the top five healthiest counties in Colorado are, from 1 to 5, Pitkin, Douglas, Custer, Boulder and Routt. The bottom five, from the bottom upward are Mineral, Hinsdale, Jackson, San Juan and Huerfano.

Other counties and their rank were San Miguel (6), Ouray (10), Archuleta (21), Montezuma (42) and Dolores (32).

“The county health rankings have helped galvanize communities across the nation to improve health,” Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO and president of the foundation, said in a statement. “Solutions and innovation are coming from places as diverse as rural West Virginia to urban New Orleans and they are engaging business, public health, education, parents and young people to build a culture of health.”

Nationally, the rankings show that the healthiest counties have higher college attendance, fewer preventable hospital stays and better access parks and gyms. Conversely, the least healthy counties have more smokers, teen births and vehicle-accident deaths.

The following trends also were seen: One of four children lives in poverty; violent-crime rates are highest in the South; having a job or not affects health and premature death rates are dropping.

“In the six years since the county health rankings began, we’ve seen them serve as a rallying point for change,” Bridget Catlin, co-director of the study, said in a statement.

The study found that in La Plata County, 17 percent of adults smoke, the same as the statewide figure; 17 percent of adults are obese, compared to 20 percent statewide; 78 percent of students graduate from high school, compared to 75 percent statewide; 15 percent of children live in poverty, compared to 17 percent in the state; 9 percent are in poor or fair health, which is 4 percent less than the state as a whole.

daler@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments