"Overall we are pleased with this report, but the county has some
work to do with respect to health behaviors," said Mark Hilliard,
public health administrator for the Logan County Department of
Public Health. Logan County ranked 89 out of 101 counties in health
behaviors. The online report, available at
www.countyhealthrankings.org, includes a snapshot of each county
in Illinois 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": 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 birth weight
infants.
"This report belongs to everyone and is important because it
shows us that where we live matters to our health," Hilliard said.
"The health of a community depends on many different factors --
ranging from individual health behaviors to quality of health care,
to education and jobs, to access to healthy foods, and to the
quality of the air. With these rankings in multiple health factors,
the Logan County community can take steps to improve the health of
our residents.
"We will be using this report in the coming weeks to assist with
a community health needs assessment, and this report gives us
information we can use to work with key community stakeholders to
investigate programs and policy changes that can improve health in
Logan County."
(Logan
County report)
[Text from file received from
the
Logan County Department of Public
Health]
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