Wadena County had mixed results in a nationwide County Health Rankings report released Wednesday ranking 82 in health outcomes and 36 in health factors out of 85 participating counties in Minnesota.
Social and economic factors dragged down the health factors score with Wadena County ranking 76. The county did much better in other categories, ranking second in physical environment, fourth in health behaviors and 23 in clinical care.
Health factors are what influences the health of a county, according to the report prepared by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The rankings are intended to provide counties in every state in the country with a snapshot of how healthy their residents are.
Wadena County's low health outcomes ranking of 82 is based half on mortality (length of life) and half on morbidity (quality of life). These terms refer to early death and lots of disease, County Public Health Director Karen Nelson told the county board.
Only Mahnomen, Beltrami and Lake counties ranked lower in health outcomes.
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The report measured 85 of Minnesota's 87 counties because Cook and Traverse counties' numbers were too small for the data needed, Nelson said.
"It is interesting to study the data," she told commissioners.
Social and economic factors do play a role in health outcomes, she said referring to the county's low ranking of 76 in that area. Socioeconomic factors include education, employment, income, family and social support and community safety. This category formed 40 percent of the county's health factors ranking.
Nelson pointed out that the county did well in some of the health factors categories of the report.
Wadena County ranked 23 in the clinical care category which looks at access to care and quality of care. Clinical care formed 20 percent of the county's health factors
ranking.
The county ranked fourth in health behaviors which measures adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking motor vehicle death rate, teen births and the chlamydia rate. Health behaviors contributed 30 percent of the county's health factors ranking.
The county was second only to Marshall County in the physical environment rank, which measures unhealthy air due to ozone, unhealthy air due to particulate matter, access to healthy foods and the number of liquor stores. Physical environment contributed 10 percent to the health factors ranking.
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Of the counties that neighbor Wadena, Hubbard ranked highest in health outcomes at 20. Otter Tail ranked 32. Todd ranked 66. Cass ranked 81. Becker ranked 76.
The highest ranking neighboring county for health factors was Otter Tail at 55. Hubbard ranked 63. Todd ranked 80. Cass ranked 84. Becker ranked 78.
A complete copy of the report is available at countyhealthrankings.org/minnesota.
