Report measures health factors at county level

Feb. 16th, 2010 by Pia Christensen
Filed under: Health data, Health policy, Public health, Studies, Tools 

A county-by-county collection of reports set to be released tomorrow could be a good source for local data on a number of health factors. The County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, is the first of what is expected to be an annual look at health within each state.

The rankings will “show how counties measure up within each state in terms of how healthy people are, how long they live, and how important factors affect their health, such as tobacco use, obesity, access to healthcare, education, community safety, and air quality,” according to a press release.

A Feb. 17 briefing will include experts representing public health, health policy, education, and business who are expected to discuss the rankings and ways that communities can become healthier. The briefing, which starts at 9:30 a.m. EST, will be webcast. You can RSVP for this event online and a link will be sent to those who RSVP as soon as it’s available. For those in Washington, D.C, the briefing will be at the Columbus Club at Union Station, 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE - you also will need to RSVP.

Speakers are expected to include:

  • Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • David R. Williams, M.P.H., Ph.D., Norman Professor of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
  • Patrick Remington, M.D, M.P.H., Associate Dean for Public Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
  • Andrew Webber, President and CEO, National Business Coalition on Health
  • Judith A. Monroe, M.D., FAAFP, State Health Commissioner, Indiana State Department of Health
  • Donald Shell, M.D., M.A., Health Officer, Prince George’s County Health Department

(Full disclosure: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of a number of organizations supporting AHCJ’s educational efforts.)

Update

See how many news organizations have covered the rankings.

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2 Comments on Report measures health factors at county level

  1. Report measures health factors at county level : Covering Health | What is Buzzing Around the World on Thu, 18th Feb 2010 8:45 am

    2. [...] from: Report measures health factors at county level : Covering Health Post a comment | Trackback [...]

  2. Reporters use county rankings for analysis : Covering Health on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 4:02 pm

    3. [...] On Feb. 17, rankings of the relative health of counties in each American state were released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin. The rankings used data from 13 distinct (mostly federal) sources, including the National Center for Health Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Dartmouth Atlas. With that data, researchers computed eight separate composite scores, which were then weighted to produce one overall score. The ratings are navigated by clicking through a national map to the state and county level. Enough clicks will even bring you to the raw data itself. The state only compares counties, not states, because data collection varies from state to state and isn’t always standardized. [...]

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