County Health Rankings look familiar, but show that some counties overcame bad factors to have encouraging outcomes

The 2015 County Health Rankings for Kentucky, compiled by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, have been released. For the fourth year in a row, Oldham County ranked highest in Kentucky for health outcomes. Statistical differences among closely ranked counties are very small, so rankings are arranged in quartiles (quarters) in the maps below.

The rankings fall into two categories: factors and outcomes. Health factors, left, include the health behaviors (with factors such as adult smoking), clinical care (with factors such as the ratio of population to primary-care physicians), social and economic factors (such as the percentage of children under 18 in poverty) and physical environment (with factors such as the percentage of workforce that drives alone to work). Oldham County was followed by Boone, Woodford, Scott and Anderson counties. Clay County ranked last, preceded by Martin, Leslie, Wolfe and Knott. Generally, health factors and outcomes reflect income and education levels.

Health outcomes, right, include premature death, poor or fair health, poor physical health days, poor mental health days and low birthweight. Boone County ranked first, followed by Oldham, Shelby, Fayette and Jessamine. Owsley County ranked last, preceded by Floyd, Leslie, Clay and Perry.

Some counties, such as Morgan and Wayne, overcame their poor health factors to have better-than-average outcomes. To see the full, specific list of county rankings, click here.