County by County Blog

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

Even When Your County is Healthy, a Check-Up Can Help

Publication date
March 1, 2010
States:

Dane County, Wisconsin is, for the most part, a pretty healthy place to live.

I should know.

I’m one of the developers of the County Health Rankings. The report -- produced by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation -- ranks counties in all 50 states on overall health, and on the many factors that affect health.

Dane County scored in the top 10 among the state’s 72 counties.

In fact, Dane County has plenty going for it when it comes to health: It has a highly educated population—45 percent of the residents have a college degree, the most of any county in the state. It’s also a community with low rates of adults who smoke. In fact, just 17 percent of adults in Dane County smoke, one of the lowest rates of any county in the state.

Dane County has lots of people who have the resources that make it easier to stay healthy and avoid chronic health problems. For example, just 9 percent of all Dane County residents said they were in poor or fair health compared to a state-wide average of 12 percent.

But every healthy county in the United States has areas related to health that need to be improved, and Dane County is no exception.

For example, Dane County comes in close to last in the state (61 out of 72) on one measure of health: the physical environment. What is it about the environment that makes Dane County unhealthy?

It turns out that the county has a problem that plagues many other metropolitan areas in the United States: air pollution.

Twelve days a year, the air quality in Dane County is considered unhealthy due to ozone or fine particulate matter, pollutants that result from use of gasoline and diesel powered engines in automobiles and trucks, and can trigger serious health problems like asthma, bronchitis and other kinds of lung disease.

But that poor score has galvanized stakeholders in Dane County to clean up the air. For example, the Dane County Clean Air Coalition is calling on residents, businesses, government agencies and others to help take steps to reduce air pollution. They’ve asked commuters to consider car-pooling and they’re pushing for a light rail system that would get more cars off the road.

Dane County’s experience is an example of how counties that rank near the top of the list can use these County Health Rankings to identify areas that need attention. Dane County has gone beyond the data and is now using the information to implement solutions.

In Dane County, concerned citizens are using the Rankings as an opportunity to start building a team of leaders from a variety of sectors in the community who can take on the health problems in the county both now and in the future.

Consider starting or joining a team in your community. After all we are all responsible for assuring that our communities are healthy places to live, learn, work and play.

Patrick Remington, MD, MPH, is a professor of Population Health Sciences, and associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

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