St. Clair County ranks low in overall health, Monroe, Clinton rank high

When it comes to overall health, only nine counties in Illinois rank worse than St. Clair County.

The rankings put St. Clair County 93rd out of 102 Illinois counties, according to the 2016 national County Health Rankings recently released.

“We’ve known for some time that our county faces challenges. It’s the principle reason why the health department convenes regular health assessment and planning activities among the members of the St. Clair County Health Care Commission,” said Barbara Hohlt, executive director for the St. Clair County Health Department.

Neighboring counties rank much better than St. Clair. Monroe County ranks third best in the state; Clinton County ranks 12th, Randolph County ranks 65th, and Madison County ranks 60th.

“It’s definitely a great thing that we ranked that high,” said John Wagner, administrator of the Monroe County Health Department. “That shows some of our programs are making somewhat of a difference.”

However, he emphasized most health departments in Illinois have similar programs, and health departments and government entities in general have little to no control over many factors used in the rankings, such as low-income areas and crime.

“It’s not as big of a deal as it sounds,” Wagner said of the ranking. “There’s a lot of things that go into that study. I don’t read a whole lot into that study.”

The rankings compare counties on 60 factors that influence health, including education, housing, violent crime, jobs, diet and exercise, adult obesity, smoking, children in poverty, teen-age birth rates, alcohol use, sexually transmitted diseases and air pollution.

Health departments continue to face funding challenges as the state has been operating without a budget.

“With no budget, its really hurting health departments,” Wagner said.

Cheryl Lee, administrator at Clinton County Health Department, attributed the county’s overall health ranking in part to the formation of the Clinton Health Improvement Coalition in partnership with St. Joseph’s Hospital in Breese.

The 25-member coalition, which meets once every two months, works together to address priority health needs, according to Lee. The coalition also has three committees: one focused on nutrition; one on physical activity and one on safety. The nutrition committee is looking at developing a community garden as well as a cookbook.

The 2015 rankings for metro-east counties were as follows: St. Clair 86th; Monroe 18th; Clinton 4th; Madison 70th, and Ranolph 51st.

The County Health Rankings is a collaborative report produced annually by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The rankings let people compare the overall health of their county with the health of the rest of the counties in their state.

“If we stay where we are but continue to improve, that just means the whole state is improving ... progress is really what we are shooting for,” said Mark Peters, director of community health for the St. Clair County Health Department.

After showing slow but steady improvements since its 2010 release, St. Clair County’s rankings has dropped to nearly 9 percent of its 2015 ranking for population health outcomes and health factors.

“What is driving this is some of our economic measures. We have some crime statistics that we continue to be challenged by, but we’re working together on those,” Peters said. “Very few of these things can the county change overnight.”

St. Clair showing improvements

In the current rankings, St. Clair County has shown some improvement in reducing adult tobacco use, sexually transmitted infections, teen births, and low birth weight outcomes, while increasing access to exercise opportunities.

Madison County has an extensive network of walking and bike trails, but St. Clair County is working to catch up.

“The county has been working diligently on the number of miles of walking trails,” Peters said.

However, health improvements are still needed in other areas such as premature death, infant and child mortality, diabetes, obesity, violent crime, injury deaths, excessive drinking, alcohol-impaired driving deaths, access to healthy foods, health screenings such as mammography, access to medical services such as primary care physicians, dentist and mental health provider, unemployment and poverty.

For example, St. Clair County has one mental health provider for every 1,180 residents; Monroe County has one for every 890 residents; Clinton County has one for every 4,210 residents; and Madison County has one for every 690 residents. The average in Illinois is one for every 560 residents.

“The rankings help us identify factors that are making it difficult for residents to maintain a healthy lifestyle and understand how we compare to other counties in the state,” Peters said. “They show us that people who live in a healthy community find it easier to lead a healthy lifestyle.”

Since the early 1990s, the St. Clair County Health Care Commission alliance of health and human service organizations has served as a public health system to establish priority health issues, mobilize resources to meet identified health needs and promote the health and well-being of residents of St. Clair County.

The members of the commission have utilized these annual rankings as part of their assessment and planning process since 2010.

“They give us information we can use to work together to take action, so we can implement programs and policy changes that improve health in St. Clair County,” Peters said.

The County Health Rankings and Roadmaps can be found online at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 10:39 AM with the headline "St. Clair County ranks low in overall health, Monroe, Clinton rank high."