For this month's blog I have reviewed specific health care indicators in Ontario County, NY and compared the results with the rest of the New York State and the Nation.
In examining the Mortality and Morbidity indicators I found that Ontario County had 5,521 premature deaths in 2012 which falls in between the National results (5,466) and the New York State results (5,821). With regards to morbidity, Ontario County fell between the National and State levels in all three subsets (poor physical health days, poor mental health days, and low birth weight), with National levels having a better outcome and state levels with a worse outcome that Ontario County, NY. The exception to this trend, is that the percentage of poor or fair health was lower as compared to the Nation and New York State; 8%, 10%, and 16% respectively.
Interestingly the aforementioned trend of Ontario County falling in between National and State indicator levels continued with regards to Social and Economic considerations. One stand out result is high school graduation, where Ontario County boasts 86% graduation rate as compared with the State result of 65%. Of note, there were not results recorded for the National high school graduation rate. As a trend unemployment, children in poverty, inadequate social support, children in single parent homes and violent crime rate were lowest on a National level, highest at the State level and Ontario County stayed intermediate.
Upon reviewing the Health Behaviors indicators I was surprised to see that Ontario County had not only a higher percentage of adult obesity (27%) than the National level of 25%, but it is also higher than the State level of 25%. These levels do not follow that trend as mentioned above.
Finally, in the area of Clinical Care indicators Ontario County has a very proportion of patients: primary care physicians (1,027:1) and compared with the Nation (631:1) and New York State (781:1); this clearly indicates that Ontario County is in need of primary care physicians!
(http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/#app/new-york/2012/rankings/outcomes/overall)).
