Navigating the Changing Landscape: Health Educators Respond to the Changing NC Population

On October 12, Angela Russell, the Community Engagement Lead for the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, presented a national perspective of the Rankings at the North Carolina Chapter of the Society for Public Health Education’s Annual Meeting and learned how three of the state’s counties used the Rankings to improve health.

In Rockingham County, the low ranking of 79 out of 100 counties in North Carolina spurred the public health department to take immediate action. Katrina White, Health Education Program Manager at the Rockingham County Department of Public Health, said the department quickly assembled a task force of community leaders from the education, business, health, and human services sectors, along with elected officials, to identify the root causes of the poor rankings and develop recommendations for community action. The group focused on areas with the poorest rankings: health behaviors, education, economic development and employment, and access to health care. Their recommendations call for increasing collaboration between community stakeholders and reinforcing health promotion efforts through evidenced-based, community initiatives.

In Forsyth County, the Rankings further confirmed the results of the county’s 2011 Community Health Assessment, which set top priorities for improvement in physical activity and nutrition, chronic disease prevention, maternal and infant health, and social determinants of health. Ayotunde Ademoyero, of the Forsyth County Department of Public Health, said there’s a correlation between the Rankings’ health outcomes—in which Forsyth ranks 25th in the state—and social and economic factors in the county.

In Buncombe County, the department of public health uses the Rankings in community health needs assessments, according to Marian Sadler Arledge, a Community Health Specialist at Buncombe County’s Department of Health. Ranked 14 out of 100 counties in the state, Arledge sees room for the county (and state) to improve, especially in areas affected by health behaviors, like smoking and sexually-transmitted infection rates, and social and economic factors, including high school graduation and child poverty rates.

According to the America’s Health Rankings, North Carolina ranks 32 in the nation for health, with challenges primarily in the state’s high rates of adult obesity, diabetes, adult smoking, and childhood poverty.