New health rankings show Columbus-area counties among best and worst in GA, AL
The Columbus area is home to some of the healthiest and unhealthiest counties in Georgia and Alabama, according to a new national analysis.
Out of Georgia’s 159 counties, Muscogee County ranks 122nd in health outcomes, down two spots from last year, according to the 2020 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey, and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Meanwhile, the study says Muscogee’s neighbor to the north, Harris County, is among the healthiest in Georgia, ranking 7th, up one spot from last year.
Other neighbor rankings include:
- Chattahoochee County: 44th (same as last year)
- Talbot County: 55th (up 22 spots from last year)
- Marion County: 76th (down 21 spots from last year)
To the west of Muscogee, out of 67 counties in Alabama, Lee County ranks third, same as last year, and Russell County ranks 43rd, up one from last year.
The analysis uses the following factors to determine the rankings for health outcomes, based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a state-based random telephone survey of more than 400,000 annual respondents and administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Premature death (years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population in 2016-18)
- Poor or fair health (self-reported status in the 2017 survey).
- Poor physical health days (self-reported number of unhealthy days in the 30 days before the 2017 survey).
- Poor mental health days (self-reported number of unhealthy days in the 30 days before the 2017 survey).
- Low birth weight (percentage of live births weighing less than 5.5 pounds in 2012-18).
