Delaware is healthiest county again

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Delaware County is the healthiest county in Ohio for the second year in a row, according to the Delaware General Health District.

The 2016 County Health Rankings issued this week places Delaware County as first in Ohio for both health outcomes and health factors, district officials said.

Health outcomes focus on how healthy people are currently and health factors are based on how healthy people will be in the future.

“We are very excited that Delaware County has once again secured the number one position as healthiest county in Ohio and congratulate our residents on this achievement,” Health Commissioner Shelia Hiddleson said. “As thrilled as we are about this ranking, we are still fully committed to our county’s pockets of need and remain focused on our residents’ health.”

According to the rankings, Delaware County residents engage in the healthiest behavior among Ohio’s 88 counties – a ranking covering nine categories, including adult smoking, adult obesity, food environment, physical inactivity, access to exercises opportunities, excessive drinking, alcohol-impaired driving deaths, sexually transmitted infections and teen births.

Delaware County again led the state in clinical care, including the lowest rate of uninsured persons and remained first in social and economic factors.

Hiddleson said that the health district, along with community partners, continues to make strides in improving health issues facing the county, as outlined in the district’s 2014-2018 Community Health Improvement Plan. Those issues include access to healthcare, alcohol and substance abuse, food insecurity, mental health and obesity.

“In year one of the Community Health Improvement Plan, we have seen improvement in people getting transportation to healthcare, substance abuse programming in the jail, talk of bringing behavioral healthcare to local hospital sites, new GIS mapping for food pantries and community meals and more schools participating in physical activity during indoor recess,” she said.

Other counties ranked in the top 10 were Geauga, Putnam, Union, Medina, Warren, Mercer, Holmes Wood and Henry.

The worst 10 ranked counties were Meigs, Montgomery, Jefferson, Lawrence, Scioto, Jackson, Vinton, Gallia, Adams and Pike.

The rankings, presented by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, are available online at countyhealthrankings.org.

Staff Report

Information for this story was provided by the Delaware General Health District.

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