State of Douglas health touted on Web site

Douglas is the healthiest county in one of the least healthy states in the nation, according to a report issued by an advocacy group on Wednesday.

After Douglas, Pershing, Humboldt, Elko and Washoe counties are in the top five, according to www.countyhealthrankings.org.

The bottom five are Mineral, Lander, Nye, White Pine and Lincoln counties. Neither Esmeralda nor Eureka counties appeared in the ranking.

Another advocacy group ranked Nevada 45th in the nation for overall health in 2009. The second highest ranking state on americashealthrankings.org is Utah. If Douglas County were still part of the Beehive State, it would rank sixth behind Davis County, Utah.

That appears to be mostly due to Davis' location near Salt Lake City, where it suffers from higher pollutions levels than Douglas County does. Douglas County residents smoke and drink more than Davis County residents, but the Utah residents are a little more obese. Douglas County's density of liquor stores is nine times that of Davis County.

The county ratings were released in a report by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The County Health Rankings are the first to rank the overall health of the counties in all 50 states - more than 3,000 total - by using a standard formula to measure how healthy people are and how long they live.

"This report shows us that there are big differences in overall health across Nevada's counties, due to many factors, ranging from individual behavior to quality of health care, to education and jobs, to access to healthy foods, and to quality of the air," says Patrick Remington, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Dean for Public Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "For the first time, every person can compare the overall health of their county to the health of other counties in Nevada, and also see where the state needs to improve."

The online report, available at www.countyhealthrankings.org, includes a snapshot of each county in Nevada 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" for Nevada by county: 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-birthweight infants.