Study: Benton County tops in health, Ouachita County worst
This article was originally published March 20, 2013 at 11:30 a.m. Updated March 20, 2013 at 2:59 p.m.
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A study released Wednesday shows Benton County as the healthiest in Arkansas with Ouachita County as the least healthy.
The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, released each year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, aims to reflect "how long and how well people live" by compiling rates of smoking, education and access to healthy food, according to its web site.
The Arkansas county rankings, which can be searched and analyzed on the ranking website, show Benton County as the healthiest in Arkansas, topping the state health outcome rankings in premature death rate and morbidity rate. It also scored tops in the state in social and economic factors and health behaviors. The latter category includes rates of smoking, obesity, teen birth rate and motor-vehicle crashes, among other factors.
Rounding out the study's top five healthiest counties in Arkansas are Washington, Faulkner, Saline and Boone.
Pulaski County is ranked 22nd. The ranks Pulaski top in the clinical care category, which includes statistic on number of doctors and dentists, number of uninsured residents and availability of certain medical screenings.
The state's five least-healthy counties in the study are: Lafayette, Poinsett, Mississippi, Phillips and Ouachita. Ouachita County is number 10 in the state in the clinical care category but 74th in morbidity and in mortality.
The study's organizers say it shows nationally that child poverty rates have not improved since 2000, that teen birth rates are twice as high in the least-healthy counties as compared with the healthiest and smoking, teen birth and physical inactivity are higher in counties were residents don't live as long and don't report feeling as well.
Comment on: Study: Benton County tops in health, Ouachita County worst
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Bart says... March 20, 2013 at 4:31 p.m.
Wow! What a surprise! The Delta is at the bottom of Arkansas counties. As usual. We have a few rich farmers (agribusiness operators) and a bunch of holdovers, i.e. uneducated, mental and physically impaired, when mechanization displaced them as workers. The Powers that be don't care. They have theirs. If you can't get the feds to finance non-profits, mostly churches and preachers, you are left out. Oh, except, the state ponies up bucks to train low-paid health workers to staff the local hospitals. These are also funded by federal funds (Medicare and mostly, Medicaid). Some things never change. Except, the poor White and Black sharecroppers used to work and took care of themselves. Today? Look around. Families destroyed; work ethic gone. A long way from a self-reliant population.
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