The annual County Health Rankings Reports have been released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
While Pulaski County Ranked higher than Starke County in health factors and outcomes, their rank fell compared to last year while Starke County saw an improvement in each category.
Out of all 92 counties within the state of Indiana, Starke County was ranked in 79th place for health outcomes compared to 86th last year. Meanwhile in 2018 Pulaski County was ranked in the 53rd spot compared to 47th in 2017.
Health outcomes are measured by assessing the frequency of premature death and certain quality of life factors such as the percentage of poor physical and mental health days and the percentage of low birth weights.
In the health factors category, Pulaski County was ranked at 49th this year, falling from the rank of 37th in the previous year. Starke County came in lower than Pulaski, ranked number 86. However, that is one place higher than where it was ranked in 2017.
That section incorporates health behaviors, such as smoking, obesity, and teen birth rates as well as the physical environment of a county, social and economic factors and clinical care statistics.
When it comes to health factors, there were a few areas where the two counties were not so different. Adult smoking in Starke County was reported at 22 percent while Pulaski reported 20 percent and there was only a one percent difference between the excessive drinking statistics which came in at 16 percent for Starke and 17 percent for Pulaski.
Some of the biggest differences in health factor statistics came from those related to exercise opportunities and adult obesity.
Although Starke County lists a significantly higher percentage in the access to exercise opportunities category, reporting 64 percent compared Pulaski’s 35 percent the report indicates that adult obesity in Starke County is at 36 percent compared to 30 percent in Pulaski County.
Click the following links to view the entire reports for Starke and Pulaski, to compare counties and to learn more about the County Health Rankings reports.
