HANCOCK COUNTY — For a second year running, Hancock County has been voted the seventh-healthiest in the state by County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a project that measures communities’ health through tracking data concerning premature deaths, obesity rates and access to fitness opportunities, among other statistics.
Since 2010, the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute, has ranked Indiana counties 1 to 92 in two overall categories: health outcomes and health factors.
This year, Hancock County ranks seventh overall on the health outcomes list, which focuses on how long people live and how healthy they feel during their lifetimes; the county placed fifth in 2016 and 26th in 2015. The county ranks fifth in health factors — those things that influence community health, such as clinical care, environmental factors and individual health choices like drinking and smoking. The ranking marks an improvement; Hancock County had been sixth in health factors for the previous two years.
Hamilton County is ranked healthiest in the state in both categories. Fayette County in east central Indiana ranks last in health outcomes, while Marion County ranks last in health factors.
Racial disparity
Hancock County ranks well above the state and national average in many of the tracked areas but falls into line with an alarming national trend, said Justin Rivas, a spokesman for County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.
“There’s an alarming pattern of racial disparity in low birth-weight babies, with a two-fold difference between white and black babies,” Rivas said. “African-American babies are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.”
While only about 3 percent of Hancock County’s racial makeup is represented by people of non-Hispanic African-American descent, twice as many black babies were born weighing fewer than than 5 pounds, 8 ounces, than white babies from 2010 to 2016, according to the study.
Low birth weight is an important factor in tracking the health of the community because it serves as a predictor of premature mortality and/or morbidity over the course of the child’s life, according to the study. Children born at low birth weights have greater developmental and growth problems, are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, have a greater rate of respiratory conditions and have higher rates of cognitive problems, according to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps website.
Low birth weight also reflects maternal exposure to health risks. Authors have found that modifiable maternal health behaviors, including nutrition and weight gain, smoking, and alcohol and substance use or abuse can result in low birth weight.
Clinical care
Hancock County ranks fourth in the state for its clinical care statistics, which include the number of uninsured residents, the ratio of primary care physicians, dentists and mental health providers to residents.
Hancock Health has set its sights on bringing affordable preventive health care to the community through its population health initiative, a part of the hospital’s move toward more proactive care, not only treating people who come into the hospital but increasing efforts to prevent patients from needing to set foot inside its doors.
That effort includes providing care to patients who are uninsured or underinsured, said Becky Pohland, coordinator of the Andis Women’s Clinic at Hancock Regional Hospital in Greenfield. The clinic’s mission is to prevent late-stage breast cancer by providing women’s health screenings to qualified women, including mammograms, genetic testing, ultrasounds and more.
Last year, the center served 484 patients, providing 159 screening mammograms, 82 diagnostic mammograms and 90 ultrasounds. This marks an increase of more than 150 patients over those served in 2016, Pohland said.
The center, which also offers well-woman visits and pap smears, will soon begin offering breast MRI in addition to its other imaging services, Pohland said.
“The hospital, grants and programs enable us to keep up with the newest and latest technology offerings,” she said. “Our patients receive every bit of care that an insured patient does.”
Room for improvement
By far the lowest rating for the county on the Health Rankings and Roadmaps study is its number for physical environment, a category that examines factors like air pollution and housing problems. Hancock County rated 76th in the state this year, falling from 73rd in 2017 and 52nd in 2016.
LaGrange County, along Indiana’s northern border, ranked first in physical environment in 2018; neither Marion County nor any of the counties surrounding Marion cracked the top 50 in this category, according to the County Health Rankings website.
While the physical environment category is only 10 percent of the county’s overall ranking, the factor driving this category the most is air pollution, Rivas said. While Hancock County’s daily density of fine particulate matter has decreased by about 4 percentage points since 2002, it’s still higher than the state and national average, according to the study.
Rivas said Hancock County seems to be doing well, according to its ranking and the data behind it. He said while there are areas for improvement, the county’s rankings, particularly in health factors, bode well.
“It’s important to focus on those health factors, because they dictate tomorrow’s health,” he said.
