How healthy is Berrien County?According to statistics recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, there appears to be some room for improvement.
The statistics, compiled yearly for each county in the nation, had Berrien ranked 65th out of Michigan’s 82 counties in health outcomes, which includes mortality and morbidity rates. That placed the county in the bottom third statewide.
In a second category, called health factors, the county came in 52nd. That includes factors such as health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment.
Cass County, meanwhile, ranked 59th in health outcomes and 50th in health factors.
Theresa Green, director of community health planning for the Berrien County Health Department, said she respects the findings because they provide insight to what the county can improve on.
“It’s not surprising to the health department,” she said of some of Berrien’s low scores. “They’re (the health institute) putting together data in a good way. There are some different ways to measure things that I haven’t thought of. ... They include nontraditional factors.”
Berrien fared the worst in morbidity rate - which includes factors such as poor or fair health and poor physical and mental health days.
Poor mental health days is based on responses from community members who are asked about how often during the past 30 days they thought about their mental health, which includes stress, depression and problems with emotions. The statistics represent the average number of days a county’s adult respondents reported that their mental health was not good.
www.southbendtribune.com/news/sbt-berrien-county-lags-in-health-rankings-20110423,0,3996364.story?track=rss
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