The newly released County Health Rankings are good news for Allen County. In somewhat of a surprise, our ranking jumped up 7 points from last year. And a full 15 points from just four years ago. THE GOOD news? The trend of preventing hospital stays is improving. Perhaps more are seeking treatment at clinics that don’t require health insurance. SMALL STEPS work best when trying to effect change. — Susan Lynn
Of course, as a region, southeast Kansas is a solid block of sad.
Our biggest battle, no doubt, is poverty.
From 2002 to 2012 the number of children in poverty has leapt from 18 percent to 28 percent.
It’s darn near impossible to raise healthy children in families that don’t have access to good nutrition and adequate health care.
Other challenges for Allen County include an upward trend of higher obesity rates — 34 percent of our adult population is considered obese, up from 26 percent. Discouragingly, we aren’t getting up from the couch enough. Physical inactivity has increased from 25 to 28 percent. And our number of uninsured has increased from 11 to 14 percent.
We also have higher unemployment than the state average, at 6.4 percent compared to the state average of 5.4 percent at the time of the survey.
To see the full report go to www.countyhealthrankings.org.
Also, our high school graduation rate is a strong 91 percent, compared to a state average of 83 percent.
And the quality of the air that we breathe is improving.
As a county, Allen’s ranking is 79, the upper end of our region. Woodson County has the unenviable position of garnering the state’s lowest ranking at 98. Just to north, Coffey County ranks 39th.
It all has to do with wealth and the resources it can provide. When Allen and Coffey are put side by side, the sharp contrasts are the number of children in poverty, Allen’s 28 percent compared to Coffey’s 14 percent; a higher number of births to teenagers, and the number of adults reporting fair or poor health, 19 percent for Allen compared to 10 percent for Coffey, and hence missing more days of work.
Surely, our conversion of rail corridors to walking paths is creating a more conducive climate for exercise, as are events that celebrate healthy lifestyles such as fun runs and walks.
Our federally qualified dental and health clinics on East Street also provide access to health care formerly denied to those who don’t carry health insurance.
And the new Circles anti- poverty program is helping provide the chronically unemployed with tools to get them back into the workforce.
The best thing about the report is that as a county we are on the right trajectory.
Rankings show steady trend to better health
