Report: Some Southeast Missouri counties among unhealthiest in state

Southeast Missouri did not fare well in a snapshot of well-being by counties across the United States.

Pemiscot County is the least healthy county in Missouri and Platte County has the healthiest residents in the state, according to a new report released Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The county health rankings are the first to rank the overall health of the counties in all 50 states by using a standard formula to measure how healthy people are and how long they live.

The 10 counties in the poorest health, starting with least healthy, are Pemiscot, Dunklin, Ripley, Reynolds, New Madrid, Washington, Butler, Mississippi, Wayne and St. Louis City. Missouri's 10 healthiest counties are Platte, St. Charles, Christian, Johnson, Osage, Nodaway, DeKalb, Clay, Moniteau and Cass. The healthiest of Missouri's counties are clustered in the eastern, central and northwestern regions; the least healthy counties are primarily in the southeast.

The report is available online at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

"This report shows us that there are big differences in overall health across Missouri's counties, due to many factors, ranging from individual behavior to quality of health care, to education and jobs, to access to healthy foods, and to quality of the air," says Patrick Remington, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for Public Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

"For the first time, every person can compare the overall health of their county to the health of other counties in Missouri, and also see where the state needs to improve."

The online report includes a snapshot of each county in Missouri 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 Missouri by county: the rate of people dying before age 75, the percent of people who report being in fair or poor health, the numbers of days people report being in poor physical and poor mental health, and the rate of low-birthweight 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 health factors they looked at: rates of adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking, and teenage pregnancy; the number of uninsured adults, availability of primary care providers, and 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.