Kent County’s health ranking is 16th in the state of Maryland. Queen Anne’s is 4th.
That’s the finding of a first-ever health study of every county in the nation by the Population Health Institute of the Universty of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The top-ranking county in Maryland in terms of health, Howard, is also one of the richest. Talbot is ranked sixth and Cecil is 18th. At the bottom of the list, Baltimore City.
“Where we live matters to our health,” states the report. “The health of a community depends on many different factors, including quality of health care, individual behavior, education and jobs, and the environment.”
On the ranking of mortality, or length of life, Howard is No. 1, Queen Anne’s 5, Talbot 8, Kent 13, Cecil 19, and Baltimore City on the bottom at 24.
For morbidity, defined as quality of life, Howard is 1, Queen Anne’s 3, Talbot 6, Cecil 19, Kent 20 and Baltimore City 24.
The rankings in the study are said to be based on health behaviors, clinical care, social, economic and physical environment factors. Health behaviors include measures of smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol use and risky sex behavior.
However, in the report made public, those measures are vague. “Risky sex behavior,” for example, isn’t further defined. Nor are there any county-by-county statistics.
The report does state that its measures of health factors include low birthweights, adult smoking, adult obesity, binge drinking, vehicle crash deaths, chlamydia rates, teen birth rates, uninsured adults, violent crime and liquor store density.
The ranking on physical environment puts Kent in third-to-last place at No. 22. That’s three slots below Baltimore County and 11 below Queen Anne’s.
“The physical environment includes measures of environmental quality and the built environment,” states the report, with no further explanation.
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