INDIANA COUNTY’S ANNUAL HEALTH RANKING FALLS

The annual health ranking for every county in the nation is out, and Indiana County’s overall health got worse in the last year.  Among the 67 counties in the state, Indiana County fell from 46^th to 53^rd in the “Health Outcomes” category.

Indiana County’s biggest struggles are in the categories of :

• “health factors”, where it’s ranked 62^nd;
• 65^th in “health behaviors”;
• 60^th in clinical care, where the main problem areas are the number of primary care physicians and dentists per resident, the number of days of preventable hospital stays, and people who fail to get mammograms and flu shots;
• 45^th in social and economic factors;
• And 60^th in physical environment, where we trail the state average in air pollution, drinking water violations, severe housing, and driving alone to work. While we do lag behind the state averages in those sub-categories, the margin is slight in most of them.

The numbers show Indiana County ranking 43^rd in length of life, which takes into account the number of people who die before the age of 75; 52^nd in quality of life, which measures physical and mental health and low birthweight.

Among our neighbors, Armstrong County ranks 59^th, Cambria is 65^th, Clearfield is 35^th, Jefferson is 30^th, and Westmoreland is 25^th.

The annual report is issued by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin.

HERE IS THE LINK TO INDIANA COUNTY’S RANKING.  CLICK ON EACH CATEGORY TO GO INSIDE THE NUMBERS.  YOU CAN ALSO ACCESS OTHER COUNTIES FROM THIS LINK:

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/pennsylvania/2019/rankings/indiana/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot