DuPage among healthiest counties in state

DuPage County remains one of the healthiest counties in the state and gives its residents the most opportunities to lead healthy lifestyles, according to a just-released report.

Prepared by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute, the study ranks every county in the nation, comparing them to others in their state, including the 102 in Illinois.

For the second straight year, DuPage ranks second in the state for “health outcomes” — how healthy a county is — and No. 1 in the “health factors” that influence the health of a county.

Researchers used several measures to assess the “health outcomes,” such as the rate of people dying before age 75, the percentage of people who report being in fair or poor health, the number of days people report being in poor physical condition, the number of days in poor mental health, and the rate of low birth-weight infants.

The “health factors” ranking is based on four categories — health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

Linda Kurzawa, president of the DuPage County Board of Health, said officials are thrilled about the county's high rankings.

“We will not take these rankings for granted and become complacent,” she said in a statement. “We will continue the hard work we've undertaken over these last five years to ensure our residents have access to quality health care.”

Health department officials said initiatives in the past five years include an unwanted-medicine collection program, an obesity prevention program, and “Start The Heart,“ a program aimed at reducing deaths due to sudden cardiac arrest.

“We have a strong history of working collaboratively throughout our community to identify what our residents' health needs are and then working to ensure a safety net is in place,” said Maureen McHugh, the health department's executive director.

The biggest surprise in the report is that DuPage County dramatically improved its ranking in the “physical environment” subcategory from 83rd last year to fifth this year.

The county board of health said that could be because the county had far fewer air pollution days and experienced an increase in the number of grocery stores and farmers markets.

The report is available at countyhealthrankings.org.