Mississippi County Health Rankings 2011: improving health in your community

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute are pleased to present the 2011 County Health Rankings, a collection of 50 reports, that reflect the overall health of counties in every state across the country. For the second year in a row, counties can get a snapshot of how healthy their residents are by comparing their overall health and the factors that influence their health with other counties in their state. This allows communities to see county-to-county where they are doing well and where they need to improve. The rankings, based on the latest data available for each county, is the only tool of its kind that measures the overall health of each county in all 50 states on the multiple factors that influence health. It includes snapshots of nearly every county with a color-coded map that compares each county's overall health with other counties in each of the 50 states. People can compare how their county is doing in areas like diabetes screening rates or number of uninsured adults to national benchmarks. Published on-line at www.countyhealthrankings. org by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the rankings help counties understand what influences how healthy residents are and how long they will live. The rankings look at a variety of measures that affect health such as the rate of people dying before age 75, high school graduation rates, access to healthier foods, air pollution levels, income, and rates of smoking, obesity, and teen births. For a more detailed explanation of the approach and methods used to compile the rankings, information on the action steps communities can take to improve their health, and examples of communities in action, see www.countyhealthrankings.org.