Teton county residents are the healthiest in Wyoming. That’s according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings. The least-healthy county was Fremont.
Population Health Institute researcher Kate Konkle says, overall, people in Fremont County died at a younger age, had more sick days, and were less mentally healthy than residents of other counties. Konkle says researchers considered several factors that influence the health of a community, including obesity, access to dentists, and graduation rates.
“Things like education and income have the biggest impact on how healthy someone can be,” says Konkle. “And so, in the rankings, the social and economic factors actually contribute the most weight to a county’s ranking.”
Konkle says it takes community-wide sea changes to improve health across a county.
She says information about how communities can take action to improve their overall health is available on the County Health Rankings web site: www.countyhealthrankings.org