DuPage County one of the healthiest in Illinois

Wed February 17, 2010

DuPage County one of the healthiest in Illinois in new ‘County Health Rankings' released nationwide today


DuPage County ranked as one of the healthiest counties in Illinois in a new "County Health Rankings" report announced today (Feb. 17) in Washington, D.C. All counties in all 50 states were ranked in the report.

The rankings were developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The model has been used to rank the health of counties in Wisconsin for the past six years. The model has two separate rankings including health outcomes (how healthy we are) and health factors (how healthy we can be). DuPage County ranked No. 2 in health outcomes and No. 1 in health factors.

"DuPage County residents should be very proud to be ranked one of the healthiest counties in Illinois," said Linda Kurzawa, DuPage County Board of Health President. "We will use this tool," she added, "to continue working toward the goal of improving health."

"DuPage County healthcare organizations have a strong history of working collaboratively to identify health needs and make sure that a safety net is in place to keep each and every resident as healthy as possible," said Maureen McHugh, Executive Director of the DuPage County Health Department.

McHugh said the release of this report is timely since the Health Department is working on its Illinois Plan for the Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN). This report, completed every five years, brings together a wide range of community partners to identify top health needs in DuPage County. IPLAN is required to remain a certified health department in Illinois.

Officials with the national County Health Rankings said the report shows that it does matter where people live in relationship to their health. The health of a community depends on many different factors-ranging from individual health behaviors, education and jobs, to quality of health care and the environment. This first-of-a-kind collection of 50 reports-one per state-will help community leaders see that where we live, learn, work and play influences how healthy we are and how long we live.

The online report, available at www.countyhealthrankings.org, includes a snapshot of each county in Illinois with a color-coded map comparing each county's overall health ranking. Researchers used five measures to assess the level of overall health or "health outcomes" for each county: the rate of people dying before age 75, the percent of people who report being in fair or poor health, the number of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health, and the rate of low birth weight infants.

The report then looks at factors that affect people's health within four categories: health behavior, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. Among the many factors they looked at include rates of adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking, teenage pregnancy, number of uninsured adults, availability of primary care providers, preventable hospital stays, rates of high school graduation, number of children in poverty, rates of violent crime, access to healthy foods, air pollution levels and liquor store density.

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