By John George – Senior Reporter,
Philadelphia Business Journal
March 19,
2019
Philadelphia
is again the unhealthiest among Pennsylvania's 67 counties, according to the
"County Health Rankings & RoapMaps" report issued Tuesday by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population
Health Institute.
The
annual county-by-county rankings take into consideration a variety of factors
for the analysis, including health outcomes, health behavior, clinical care,
social and economic determinants and physical environment.
Philadelphia's
low score reflects a variety of factors include high incidents of low
birthweight babies, high rates of obesity, smoking, violent crime and housing
problems.
Check
out the gallery to see how other counties in the region fared.
This
year’s report had a focus on the effect of housing costs on health care.
“Our
homes are inextricably tied to our health,” said Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “It’s unacceptable that so many individuals and
families face barriers to health because of what they have to spend on housing.
This leaves them with fewer dollars to keep their families healthy. Imagine the
stress and pain that come with unplanned moves. We are all healthier and
stronger together when everyone has access to safe and affordable housing,
regardless of the color of their skin or how much money they make.”
Nationally,
the report's key findings on housing were:
- 11 percent of U.S.
households spend more than half of their income on housing costs, which
constitutes a severe housing cost burden. Among those who own their home,
housing cost burden has decreased in the past decade. At the same time,
there has been no improvement in the rates among renters. Housing cost
burden remains substantially higher among renters than owners,
particularly for households with low incomes.
- Severe housing
cost burden affects health and is linked to barriers to living long and
well. Across counties, increases in the share of households severely cost
burdened are associated with more food insecurity, more child poverty, and
more people in fair or poor health.
- More segregated
counties have higher rates of severe cost burden, for both white and black
households. However, black residents face greater barriers to opportunity
and health than white residents. Nearly one in four black households spend
more than half of their income on housing.
- Owning a home can, over time, help
build savings for education or for other opportunities important to health
and future family wealth. In large urban and smaller metro counties, the
vast majority of households headed by whites own their home, while more
than half of households headed by blacks are renters, rather than homeowners.
In the past decade, trends in homeownership rates have changed little on
average, though gaps among racial/ethnic groups are widening.
The
report, available here, also contains a
feature called "What Works for Health," a database of more than 400
evidence-informed strategies to support local change-makers working to improve
health status of communities.
“All
communities have the potential to be places where everyone enjoys full and
equal opportunity, but the data show that’s not happening in most communities
yet," said Sheri Johnson, acting director of County
Health Rankings & Roadmaps. “It is time to do the difficult work of coming
together to undo policies and practices that create barriers to opportunity.
The Rankings can help communities ground these important conversations in data,
evidence, guidance, and stories about challenges and success.”
Philadelphia-based
Public Health Management Corp. assisting in the preparation of the report,
serving as the state team leader for Pennsylvania. PHMC in the upcoming weeks
will be releasing its own local ZIP code level community data from its
PHMC Household Health Survey.
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