Franklin County is getting healthier

Franklin County is getting a little healthier.

           

Franklin County ranks 33rd out of Florida’s 67 counties for the overall health of its residents.

Last year our county ranked 40^th.

The ranking is part of a study done by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The group looked at more than 3,000 counties and the District of Columbia to assess the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states, using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live.

The Rankings consider factors that affect people’s health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

Franklin County was weakest when looking at Health behaviors like lack of exercise, smoking, and drinking, where we ranked 56^th.

We also ranked pretty low when it comes to access to doctors and dentists and taking advantage of things like diabetes screenings and mammography when they are available.

But when you look at where we live where they consider air pollution, access to outdoor activities, access to healthy foods, and limited access to fast food, Franklin county was 25th in the state.

We ranked 45^th for social factors like education, unemployment and violent crime.

We weren’t too far off from our neighboring counties in the rankings.

Liberty County ranked 39th out of Florida’s 67 counties, Gulf County was 34th and Wakulla 27th.

The purpose of the study, which is now in its fourth year, is to give political leaders and medical professionals a benchmark to work from when considering ways to make residents overall health better.

You can see Franklin County’s numbers and compare them to any other county in the state by going on-line to www.countyhealthrankings.org

http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments