County by County Blog

Project updates, commentaries, events and news about health across the nation from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps team.

New Webinar Series Focuses on Moving from Data to Action

Publication date
May 14, 2015

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps  (CHR&R) helps communities identify and implement solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy. No matter where a community ranks—bottom, middle, or top—all counties can take action to improve. A new Rankings in Action webinar series highlight how communities are using the Rankings to address the challenges to good health.

The series launched with a webinar on diet and exercise and an in-depth look at the measures in that factor area which include:

  1. Adult Obesity: defined as the percentage of the adult population that has a body mass index greater than or equal to 30.
  2. Food Environment Index: an index of factors that contribute to a healthy food environment, including limited access to healthy foods and food insecurity. For this factor, the healthiest food environments have higher scores, and communities with unhealthy food environments have lower scores.
  3. Physical Inactivity: defined as the percentage of the adult population that during the past month did not participate in any leisure-time physical activity or exercise such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise.
  4. Access to Exercise Opportunities: defined as the percentage of the population who live reasonably close to locations for physical activity, including parks or recreational facilities.

The webinar also featured Joanne Lee of Active Living By Design who discussed innovative efforts underway in communities across the country to reduce childhood obesity, which impacts more than 30 percent of children and adolescents in the country. Lee discussed specific initiatives in Nash and Edgecombe Counties, North Carolina; Charleston, West Virginia; and Jefferson County, Alabama that are aimed at building a strong foundation of health in early childhood.

Watch the recorded diet and exercise webinar

The next Rankings in Action webinar will take place June 9th and focus on income related factors. Check the webinar section of the County Health Rankings website frequently to learn more.

 

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