Health by county rankings

[windcatcher]

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/

 

[matt wade]

Some of the items measured on this site are just plain stupid. For instance:

Access to healthy foods: Access to healthy foods is measured as the percent of zip codes in a county with a healthy food outlet, defined as a grocery store or produce stand/farmers’ market.

Do I really need to elaborate why this is stupid? According to this web site my county only had 60% access to healthy food. So, if a grocery store is 1 mile away, but in another zip code it doesn't count. Stupid. All people in my county have access to healthy food. There are grocery stores in abundance here.

Poor mental health days: The poor mental health days measure is a companion measure to the poor physical health days reported in the County Health Rankings. The estimates are based on responses to the question: “Thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” We present the average number of days a county’s adult respondents report that their mental health was not good. The measure is age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. population.

Oh good grief. This measurement is just pure stupidity. I have stress every day of my life. It's part of life. Should I have reported that I have 30 days of stress in the past 30 days?

Inadequate social support: The social and emotional support measure is based on responses to the question: “How often do you get the social and emotional support you need?” The County Health Rankings reports the percent of the adult population that responds that they “never,” “rarely,” or “sometimes” get the support they need.

Here's all the proof we need that this is a stupid measure of "health" and that this report is run by liberals.