County health rankings highlight new indicators

This year's County Health Rankings & Roadmaps will shine a light on a few new indicators and take a deeper dive into some existing ones to show trends that have developed over the program's six years.

The rankings, being released on March 25, are a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI). The data allow each state to see how its counties compare on 30 factors that impact health, such as education, transportation, housing, violent crime, jobs, diet and exercise.

"Now that we've been doing the county health rankings for six years, there are areas where we are able to start reporting trends that we're seeing across the nation," said Julie Willems Van Dijk, Ph.D., co-director of the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) program.

One trend is that the number of premature deaths is declining nationwide, based on data from counties with populations over 65,000. This has enabled UWPHI to identify the 10 counties with the greatest decreases in premature deaths, to be announced along with this year's rankings.

"A big piece of what we're featuring this year is how to help people drill down into specific measures to think about how their community is improving," she added, "because that's a more accurate reflection on a case-by-case basis of improvement than simply only looking at their county's rank."

Also new this year will be a measure of income inequality in the rankings' social and economic factors indicators, Van Dijk said. It looks at income distribution as a ratio of the 80th percentile of incomes in a county over the 20th percentile.

"We not only want people to focus on the data and the annual checkup of health but also to pivot from data to action and think about what can we do about it," she added.

On the roadmaps side of the house, the Culture of Health prizes, now in their third year, will recognize more communities this year 10 compared to six in previous years. Finalists for this year's prizes were announced Feb. 19 and include El Paso County, Texas; Lancaster County, Pa.; Santa Clara County, Calif.; Sonoma County, Calif. and Spartanburg County, S.C. Winners, to be announced this fall, will each receive a $25,000 prize.

CHR&R will host a webinar April 7, 3 p.m. EDT to provide a County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 101 Website Tour, including:

• How to use the Rankings as a call to action in your community
• The Roadmaps to Health Action Center tools and resources, including an overview of What Works for Health and the coaching program, and
• RWJF's Culture of Health Prize.

These resources are designed to help communities rally to look at the factors that influence health, choose strategies that work and make changes that will have a la sting impact.

A Roadmaps to Health Action Center includes step-by-step tools and guidance to move from data to action, a searchable database of proven policies and programs that can improve health, as well as how to engage with community coaches, located across the nation, who provide customized consultation to local leaders seeking guidance in how to accelerate their efforts to improve health.