Koochiching ranks in state's middle healthwise with room to improve

“By reporting on the overall health of people in each county, we can begin to understand how individual health is affected by where people live,” said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, state Health Department commissioner. “The rankings remind us that we live in communities, and that if our community is healthy, we're more likely to be healthy ourselves.”

The rankings, now in its fourth year, are “intended to provide a instrument for each state to identify counties where health disparities exist,” according to a university news release and the full findings found online. That way, local health, social service and other organizations can partner with government and health care providers to create and implement plans to help its residents live longer, healthier lives, it said.

“I think we're doing OK, at least our physical environment was fairly high at No. 11,” said Susan Congrave, director Koochiching County Community Health. “We were a little high in the social aspects as far as children in poverty (22 percent), something we have to address.”

She also said it's “no surprise” that obesity, a lack of exercise and cancer are somewhat on the high side, too.

But Congrave also said she believes residents and professionals together will figure out ways to hurdle these problems the best they can.

“Every little thing you do right will help you improve,” Congrave added.

Public health very much is in the hands of individuals as well as doctors, hospitals and people in her position, she said. Just a person walking and biking to work or drinking water instead of soda helps, Congrave said.

One thing she said she's noticed that's a concern are fewer colon cancer screenings. Congrave said she would like to encourage more people over the age of 50 to get the testing done, but she also said the medical community could help out, too, by trying to find a less-invasive way to conduct the screening.

Overall, Congrave also called the report “a road map” or another tool to help get “us where we want to go” from a public health standpoint.

She also said it matches well with other efforts underway, such as the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP), which is now in its fourth year, too.

Ehlinger noted that there is a concentration of counties in northern Minnesota with rankings in the bottom for health outcomes. He said the the state Health Department and SHIP are currently using federal, state and regional funding sources “to create a healthier future for northern Minnesota.”

He also said that SHIP's funding has noticeably decreased recently. Ehlinger, in the news release, also stated that after receiving $47 million in its first two years, SHIP received a 70 percent cut to $15 million today.

A national study done in relation to this one said that Minnesota is ranked No. 48 in public health spending.

“It is now providing community grants to just over half the state,” he said. “For fiscal years 2014-15, Governor Mark Dayton has proposed a $40 million budget for SHIP that would again make the program statewide.”

"When we see these health differences across the state, it becomes clear that we need to invest in the Statewide Health Improvement Program, so that we can have the resources needed to implement a statewide approach that at the same time relies on local expertise to create an approach tailored to each community," Ehlinger said.

In addition, Congrave said that a “large-scale community health assessment” is underway between county health and Rainy Lake Medical Center, one of the first of its kind between the groups.

The findings should be ready to present to the community this spring for additional resident input and completion in July, Congrave said.

In the county rankings, researchers used five primary measures to assess the level of overall health for each county. Those were premature death (75 or younger), 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, according to the report's assessment.

“The County Health Rankings rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live,” according to the release. “This year’s rankings include several new measures, such as how many fast food restaurants are in a county and levels of physical inactivity among residents.”

Koochiching County reported 5,455 premature deaths while the state average was 5,126. Twelve percent of county residents said they were in fair or poor physical health compared to 11 percent statewide.

The number of days people here said they were in poor physical and mental health was 3.8 and 3.2 days versus 2.9 statewide. Finally, Koochiching's low birth-weight percentage was 5.1 percent against 6.5 percent overall.

Some other indicators measured were smoking, 17 percent; adult obesity, 30 percent; physical inactivity, 22 percent; excessive drinking, 17 percent and the uninsured, 11 percent.

The study went on to examine county social and economic factors as well, such as the high school graduation rate of 82 percent; some college, 66 percent; unemployment, 8.3 percent; children in poverty, 22 percent; and single-parent homes, 28 percent.

In addition to physical environment, for the first year it also looked at items such as restaurants, 32 percent of which serve fast food in Koochiching County. But the report also stated that residents in general had greater access to recreation, and then again only about half the population had access to the healthy foods like the rest of Minnesota.

The study does not rank counties nationwide. However, in 2012, Minnesota ranked fifth in the country for health, according to the annual America's Health Rankings by the UnitedHealth Foundation. That's where Minnesota's low public health ranking derived.

Minnesota also had the lowest rate of premature death.

For more information, go online to www.countyhealthrankings.org/roadmaps or www.countyhealthrankings.org.