Report: Jackson County's health on par with state, nation

Jackson County is faring about the same as the average county in Kansas for health factors and outcomes, and better than the average county in the nation.

That’s according to the annual County Health Rankings and Roadmaps report, compiled by The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and released on Wednesday, March 20.

The annual report, which has been conducted since 2011 with the aim of spotlighting factors that assess a county’s overall health, showed the county improving in some areas while falling behind the state average in certain areas on the “health factors” side of things, which focuses on actions that can be taken to improve the overall health of the county’s population.

In “health outcomes,” which provides insight into how long people live on average within a community and the quality of their physical and mental health, Jackson County appeared to be making positive impacts in the areas of premature death, poor physical health days, low birthweight, poor mental health days and poor or fair health.

The latter of those five areas, measuring the percentage of adults reporting fair or poor health, saw the county equal to the state and national average at 14 percent, while the other four areas saw the county just ahead of the national average.

Overall, the county fared better in health outcomes than neighboring Atchison, Brown and Shawnee counties, but ranked behind Nemaha, Pottawatomie, Wabaunsee and Jefferson in the report.

The county also fared better in health factors than Atchison County and was on par with Brown and Shawnee counties, but ranked behind Jefferson, Nemaha, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties for the year.

However, the number of care providers lagged state and national numbers in the report. When it comes to clinical care providers, there is one doctor for every 1,470 Jackson County residents, compared to one for every 1,280 in Kansas and one for every 1,330 across the country. The county also reported one mental health provider for every 1,660 residents, compared to one for every 420 in Kansas and one for every 320 across the country.

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