Cambria near bottom in health report

Tribune Democrat - 2/25/2010

According to a report compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconson, Cambria County residents don't feel very well.
Cambria County ranked 64th out of 67 counties in health outcome measures that included premature death rates and health related quality of life. Cambria County did a little better, (not really) ranking 52nd, in health factors that are related to enviornmental and economic factors.

This article outlined not only Cambria County's risk but also neighboring Somerset County which landed at number 32nd in health outcomes and 47th in health factors relating to enviornmental and economic risk factors. The county that ranked first in both categories in PA was Chester County. The county that ranked last in both categories was Philadelphia County.

Dr. Patrick Remington of the University of Wisconsin was interviewed by the Associated Press regarding this project and offered: "This just paints a picture of areas for improvement." Based upon these results the Cambria County Commisionners were asked for their insight. P.J. Stevens responded: "The easy thing to do would be to ignore it." Which is a suprising statement. However, he goes on to state: "...there are opportunities to make improvments, so that's what we are going to do. There are underlying factors to take a holistic approach to quality of life here. They have to be addressed."

Dr. Matthew Masiello, of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Windber Research Institute states "It is time to honest, reflective and involved in discussing the health of our communities. This conversation must include our health care providers and how they are obligated to re-evaluate their role and responsibilities in the very large picture of health." Dr. Masiello was to meet with the county commissioners. The purpose: to identify and bring together a group made up of health care representatives and government officials to organize a 'Call to Action Legislative Health Forum.' Officials from Windber Research Institute commented on their committment to development of a plan of action.

This article summarized the meaning of the rankings. It explains that counties included are in a database that ties measures like general health and rate of premature death with factors known to affect health, such as smoking, obesity and binge drinking and with other variables like unemployment, poverty, air pollution and access to grocery stores. A link is provided:

www.countyhealthrankings.org

Those who live in the least healthy counties were more likely to smoke and have fewer places to find healthy foods. It states that this was determned by measuring the number of grocery stores for each zip code. The final statement of this article is that the healthiest counties are urban or suburban, while the least healthy are mostly rural. Cambria County fits the bill for rural; however, Somerset County (which ranked 32nd) fits the rural moniker too and their ranking was much better than say, Alleghany, which is was ranked at 49th. I absolutely believe there is a true statement to be made for those that live in rural areas. Access to care, access to simple things like food and clothing can be very difficult when the closest place is 30 - 40 miles away and you have no transportation (there are no cabs, no buses that run in many areas throughout rural counties) and you have no car or family that can drive you. However, to state that rural automatically means less healthy can be a false assumption.

This same story is also listed on the local news website:
www.wjactv.com

A follow up to this story:

March 2, 2010
This article discusses the meeting between Dr. Masiello, members of Windber Research Intitute (WRI) and the Cambria County Comissioners. This was a summary of the original findings of the report. The Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention volunteered to review and analyse the data that was reported. Once the analysis is complete the commissioners will organize a public forum that will also bring in other agencies and organizations.

These articles essentially summarized Cambria County's response to the low ranking related to health in the reports listed in the County Health Rankings - Mobilizing Action Towards Community Health (MATCH). I did not get the feel for any real plan to try and improve the health of the local community at this time.

I was very impressed with the weblink listed above. It is very user friendly and gives you a one stop shop of information that a person may be interested in knowing about an area they live. The website is very well done with easy links to the PADoH and other national databases. It even comes with a toolkit for communities to respond to the "Call to Action." The exact method on the website is what is outlined in these articles. Which leads me to conclude that the Cambria County commissioners and WRI are following this template to try to identify needs and provide resources for targeted community assessment. Having this kind of information at your fingertips can be powerful. Powerful in the knowledge of improving health for our neighbors. It is also powerful in attracting others to your area (businesses, people), because who wants to live in an area that is ranked so low in health? This becomes critical for an area like Cambria County that has shrunk steadily in population over the years and continues to do so.