County health rankings released for NC

March 22-- Mar. 22--If you clicked on the Onslow County Health Department's Facebook page Thursday you may have noticed Nutrition Director Sydnie Leroy live online answering nutrition and dietary questions.

And mark your calendar for the next Second Saturday Step Up program on April 13 and celebrate Public Health Week. Join in a free body weight strength training session and learn more about the service offered at the health department.

"That's one of our initiatives launched this year," said Victoria Reyes, community relations officer for the health department. "We want increase our activities within the county and with our community partners."

The efforts are just a couple of the ways the health department reaches out to the public to help address some of the county's top health issues such as obesity and smoking.

"The Onslow County Health Department is determined to make a difference in the health of our community and provide our citizens programs and services that benefit their overall health," said Onslow County Health Department Director Angela Lee via a department news release.

According to a report released this week, Onslow County fell a few spots in the annual County Health Rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The 2019 reports ranks Onslow County as the 27th healthiest in North Carolina in overall health outcomes, which is down somewhat from 24th in 2018.

While there was a drop in the rankings this year, Onslow County has maintained a position near the top quarter of the rankings for North Carolina for the past several years.

Over the past six years, the county's rank has ranged from as high as 22nd in the state for overall outcomes in 2015 to this year's 27th.

The rankings consider physical factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, and excessive drinking; clinical care such as lack of insurance or availability of types of physicians; and social and economic factors such as education and employment.

Onslow County ranked above the state average for access to dental care, the high school graduation rate and furthering education beyond high school. In Onslow County, 26 percent of children live in single-parent households compared to 35 percent for the state, and there were 64 injury deaths per 100,000 residents compared to 71 for the state.

According to the report, Onslow County continues to struggle in areas such as adult smoking, adult obesity, excessive drinking,

Sexually transmitted infections remain extremely high at 932.8 per 100,000 residents diagnosed over the past year compared to 577 per 100,000 for the state. Teen births in females age 12-19 decreased slightly from the previous year at dropping from 58 per 1,000 births to 54 per 1,000 births.

While the teen birth rate decreased, the health department said it remains a concern.

"This is still higher than desired for our community and something OCHD is continuing to address by providing education in addition to offering birth control and family planning services to clients," the release said.

The health department said programs such as Diabetes Self-Management Education and the recently introduced Second Saturday Step Up events, which focus on health and physical activity, are among the programs that address some of the top health issues.

To view the full report, go to countyhealthrankings.org.

Reporter Jannette Pippin can be reached at 910-382-2557 or [email protected].

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