The Washoe County Health District announced new data on health county-by-county in Nevada.
It highlights how counties rank on health outcomes and how it's influenced by health factors.
The healthiest counties are in Northern Nevada -- and Douglas, Pershing, and Washoe County have stayed stable at the top three counties since 2010.
They also have data on what's driving the health outcomes data - health factors such as health behavior, social and economic factors, and physical environment.
"They maintain they add to and curate a pretty impressive list of evidence-based measures and policy changes that we might want to pursue at the county level or state level to think about how do we move the needle,” says Dr. John Packham, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.
They say the goal of this report is for counties for lawmakers can use this as a tool to improve health in their counties.
Washoe County ranked poorly in areas related to alcohol-impaired driving, sexually transmitted infections and air pollution, which has been impacted from out-of-county wildfires.
“Washoe County as a whole performed very well in these rankings,” said Kevin Dick, District Health Officer in Washoe County. “While many of our traditional health care indicators did well, these rankings show that a lot of improvement is needed in public health. While there is hope on the horizon, state and federal public health funding is critical in addressing many of the public health issues impacting Washoe County residents.”
“The Health District remains committed to the community by investing in opportunities to improve public health outcomes by providing essential public health services, collaborating with partners, increasing awareness to available impactful programs and providing information to live a more healthy life. We have increased our investments in additional staffing to serve the community, the 5210 Health Washoe program and health equity. We hope by addressing these needs, coupled with future public health improvement funds from the State of Nevada, that we’ll see our public health indicators improve well into the future.”
The Health District in February released its 2022-25 Community Health Assessment that covers a lot of health data and information in Washoe County. The Health District will release its Community Health Improvement Plan soon that will show how public health organizations in Washoe County are addressing public health matters locally.
The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) is a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Rankings provide data, evidence, guidance, and examples to build awareness of the multiple factors that influence health and support leaders in growing community power to improve health equity. The Rankings are unique in their ability to measure the health of nearly every county in all 50 states, and are complemented by guidance, tools, and resources designed to accelerate community learning and action.
The full County Rankings can be found here. Douglas County was ranked No. 1 in the state of Nevada with Pershing County finishing second for Health Outcomes. Douglas County was ranked No. 1 in the state of Nevada with Storey County finishing second for Health Factors.
(Washoe County contributed to this report.)
