Looking around Windham County, you will see many different types of people in different shapes and sizes. At first glance, the county does not appear unhealthy per se compared to other counties, but it is also at the opposite end of the state from the wealth and health of the city of Burlington and this shows. So how does the county compare to the rest of Vermont and the rest of the nation when looking at indicators of health? Let's just say, it's not the worst, but it's not the best either.
Overall, the county ranks 6 out of 14 counties in Vermont after looking at health outcomes and health factors. It beat the average, but in some outcomes and behaviors, the ranking took a skydive.
Health Outcomes: In terms of mortality, which is measured as premature death, Windham County ranked 11 in 2012. This means that more residents of Windham County will die prematurely compared to the rest of the state. The numbers show that this is also worse than the rest of the nation. But why? Are we really that unhealthy? Morbidity measures show that we actually do pretty well overall by being ranked as 3 out of 14. People have the same percentage of poor health as the state overall, and low birthweight is only 5% compared to Vermont at 6.6% and the Nation at 6%. This is phenomenal as premature and low birthweight can cause significant health complications down the line.
Health Factors: There are four categories to health factors: health behaviors (4), clinical care (6), social and economic factors (10), and physical environment (4). The rankings of 2012 are in parentheses after the category. As you can see, overall, Windham County does very well when looking at health factors, except for social and economic factors. While 88% of students are expected to graduate high school, as compared to 80% as the state average, several other factors are higher than the state and national average. These include children in poverty, inadequate social support, children in single parent households, and violent crime rate, which as 175 compared to 134 in Vermont and 73 in the rest of the nation. I think the last statistic demonstrates why the county is ranked so low compared to the rest of the state, and this is unfortunate. However, it is nice to see that the county does very well when looking at health behaviors. Both adult smoking and adult obesity is lower than the rest of the state and country. This is not by much, but both smoking and obesity create such high health risks hopefully, the county can see this and push more to prevent these numbers from increasing further. In clinical care the county also does very well; however, there is a need for primary care physicians (PCP) with a 2012 ratio of 822 residents to 1 PCP compared to Vermont 720:1 and the national benchmark of 632:1. I think increasing this ratio will be a challenge for the county as many live in poverty and when people think of Vermont, they think of Burlington. If the county is marketed in a positive light such as the beauty and the closeness to Boston, this could be overcome.
In general, Windham County compares well with the rest of Vermont and the Nation. Obviously, there are areas for improvement, but there are also ways to make that happen. Fortunately, it is a beautiful area with a lot to offer even if you have to look a little closer to find it. Good Job Windham County!
Link to Windham County Health Ranking: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/vermont/2012/windham/county/1/overall
