Providence County Lags In 2021 County Health Rankings

Cranston RI

23 April, 2021

10:47 AM

Description

PROVIDENCE COUNTY, RI — Providence County is considered among the least healthy in Rhode Island, according to this year's recently released County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. Published annually for the last decade, County Health Rankings is a program led by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute. The goal of the rankings is to help communities better address disparities in health care access. The rankings look at a variety of measures that affect a community's health, including high school graduation rates and access to healthy foods. Rates for smoking, obesity and teen births are also incorporated. In addition to assigning each county a number ranking, this year's rankings also compare each county to other counties in a state before placing it in one of four tiers, or quartiles, ranging from most to least healthy. Overall, Providence County was ranked last among Rhode Island's five counties. In health outcomes, our county was ranked in the bottom tier, meaning it is ranked lower than all other counties in Rhode Island. The same was the case in health factors. The 2021 County Health Rankings do not reflect coronavirus cases or deaths, according to researchers, who released this year's findings mainly to provide a glimpse at what influenced a community's health long before the COVID-19 pandemic. "These gaps in opportunity have to be addressed if we want a fair, inclusive, and equitable recovery from the pandemic," the organization wrote on its website. The organization said it anticipates coronavirus data will be reflected in the 2022 rankings. It also noted that counties that went into the pandemic with fewer opportunities to better resident health will exit it with "an even greater burden." "This crisis has only deepened the avoidable and unfair gaps that Black, Latino, Indigenous, and some Asian-American communities faced pre-COVID-19 in jobs with fair pay, housing, education, and more," the organization said on its website. Here's a look at the measures used to calculate our county's overall ranking: Health Outcomes Premature death Adults reporting fair or poor health Physically unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days Mentally unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days Live births with low birth weight Health Factors - Health Behaviors Adult smokers Adult obesity Healthy Food Environment Index Physical inactivity Residents with access to exercise opportunities Excessive drinking Driving deaths attributed to alcohol impairment Sexually transmitted infections Teen births Health Factors - Clinical Uninsured residents Primary care physicians Dentists Mental health providers Preventable hospital stays Mammography screenings Flu vaccinations Health Factors - Social And Economic High school completion College education Unemployment Children in poverty Income inequality Children in single-parent households Social associations Violent crime Injury deaths County Health Rankings used data from a variety of sources to compile this year's rankings. To see a list of data sources, read Rhode Island's full report. See this year's health snapshot and numbers for Providence County.