2015 Muskingum County Health Rankings Released

The 2015 Muskingum County Health Rankings have been released.

Community Health Planner, Jody Stones, says some of the numbers are looking better than last year. The county health rankings are released each year, but they are looked at over a 5 year period. Last year we ranked 74th in health outcomes, and this year we have improved to 66th because of falling premature death rates. The numbers have fallen to 63rd in health factors as opposed to the 57th ranking in 2014. Stones explains the reasons why.

“Partially because they changed some of the data. They pulled some of the data out and put new data in. So unless you look at it over time its hard to tell what caused that change. But there was a slight shift in our obesity went up some and there’s something called the food environmental index which means our access to healthy foods, we have some communities, villages that have food deserts where there’s no grocery store and so our index because of that is lower.”

The falling numbers could also attribute to unemployment rates and single parent households. Health in the Muskingum County network facilitated by stones works very hard to implement the Community Health Improvement Plan and track the success of the county through many data sets. Stones says they are seeking community members to join the team.

“It would be really nice if we could get some community members that wanted to join the network. We meet every other month on the second Tuesday at the Health Department at 9 o’clock and we need citizens to have a voice in how we try to attack whether its obesity or physical activity or creating community gardens.”

The full report is available on the Heath Department Website: www.zmchd.org