Report ranks health of Floyd Co.
The annual analysis looks at factors affecting length and quality of life.
About one in six households in Floyd and surrounding counties experience severe housing problems ranging from overcrowding, a lack of kitchen or plumbing facilities or the need to spend more than 50 percent of their income on shelter.
The issue has a ripple effect, according to the annual County Health Rankings released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
“High housing costs make it difficult for families to afford other essentials that contribute to good health, such as healthy food, medicine or transportation to work or school,” the analysis states.
Forsyth County ranks healthiest in Georgia, followed by Oconee, Cherokee, Fayette and Gwinnett. The least healthy counties are generally in the southern part of the state: Warren, Twiggs, Quitman, Clay and Miller counties.
Floyd County ranks 54 out of the 159 counties for overall health, which looks at both the length of life and quality of life in the population.
Bartow County is tops in the area at 33; Gordon County comes in at 61; Chattooga ranks 83 and Polk trails at 91.
The percent of households classified with housing burdens ranges from 16 percent in Bartow and Gordon to 17 percent in Polk to 18 percent in Floyd and Chattooga. Georgia’s average is 18 percent, but in the healthiest U.S. counties it’s half that.
“Our homes are inextricably tied to our health,” said Dr. Richard Besser, RWJF president and CEO. “It’s unacceptable that so many individuals and families face barriers to health because of what they have to spend on housing.”
The rankings, online at
CountyHealthRankings.org, call attention to key drivers in health and the differences from place to place that affect how well and how long people live. The four main areas of investigation were health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and the physical environment.
Higher-than-average rates of adult smoking, adult obesity and people without medical insurance are among the health factors of concern in the five-county area, but there are bright spots as well in the report.
Floyd County ranks among the highest in the country in the ratio of primary care physicians to residents, 770 to 1. The top U.S. performers average 1,050 to 1. It also logged a 10 percent rate of alcohol-impaired driving deaths, compared to the 22-percent state average; and a high school graduation rate of 92 percent compared to 81 percent statewide.
Additional areas of concern where Floyd does worse than the state average include the 53-percent of residents who have some college, a 5.2-percent unemployment rate and the 27 percent of local children who live in poverty.
Residents also recorded a higher rate of preventable hospital stays, equal to 5,977 per 100,000 people. in Georgia, it averages 4,851 per 100,000 and the healthiest communities nationally average a rate of 2,765 per 100,000.
The other nearby counties also top the state average, with the rate at 5,201 per 100,000 in Gordon; 5,585 per 100,000 in Polk; 5,645 per 100,000 in Bartow; and 5,645 in Chattooga.
Polk County’s bright spots also include a 10 percent rate of alcohol-impaired driving deaths and a lowerthan-state-average rate of income inequality. That’s the difference between the to 20 percent and bottom 20 percent of earners.
The county also nets a 7.9 on the food environment index, which calculates access to healthy food and the ability to afford it. Georgia’s overall rating is 6, which is much lower than the 8.7 average for the top counties nationwide.
Areas of concern in Polk included the graduation rate, level of education overall, and high rates of violent crime and injury deaths. The number of reported violent crimes was equal to 569 per 100,000 people, compared to 388 per 100,000 for the state average and 63 per 100,000 in the safest U.S. counties.
Gordon County’s high school graduation rate of 94 percent stood out as a high mark in the health factors, along with a relatively low rate of sexually transmitted diseases equal to 251 per 100,000 people. It’s the lowest in the area and significantly lower than the statewide average of 614.6 per 100,000 people.
Income inequality is within healthy-community bounds in Gordon as well, with a ratio of 4.3 between the top and bottom percentiles, compared to 5.0 for the state and 3.7 in the topperforming counties.
The county’s uninsured rate of 20 percent, however, is the highest in the area. Georgia’s average is 15 percent and the healthiest U.S. communities average 6 percent. About 25 percent of Gordon’s adults and 8 percent of its children are without medical insurance, according to the report.
Chattooga County’s strongest points are its food environment index of 7.8 for access and affordability of healthy food, and its 4.7 percent unemployment rate equal to the state average.
The county’s 86-percent high school graduation rate beats the state average but is flagged as a potential area of concern in the report. Just 36 percent of the adults have some college education.
Chattooga also nearly matched Polk in the rate of injury deaths: 94 per 100,000 people compared to 99 per 100,000. Statewide, the rate – using data from 2013 through 2017 – was 63 per 100,000.
Bartow County scored well on the income-inequality scale and 48 percent of the population got flu vaccinations, compared to 43 percent statewide and 52 percent in the top counties nationwide.
The county ranked lowest in the area in the premature death rate, which is the number of years of potential life lost before the age of 75 per 100,000 people. It’s calculated giving heavier weight to the deaths of younger people.
Bartow came in at 8,200 per 100,000 compared to 8,800 for Floyd, 9,000 for Gordon, 10,600 for Polk, and 10,700 for Chattooga. The statewide average was 7,700 per 100,000 and the top-performing counties in the nation averaged 5,500 per 100,000.
A major area of concern was the violent crime rate equal to 468 reports per 100,000 people, using data for 2014 and 2016.