Kern might be in poor health, but it’s not that bad, local health economist says
The foundation ranked
But when Cal State Bakersfield Assistant Professor of Economics
If a county has a large population of uninsured people who are under-educated, the county may "be doing very well in mitigating the health outcomes in relation to the population they are dealing with," Gearhart wrote.
"The rankings miss a critical consideration when separated into health factors and health outcomes: that certain counties may be producing healthcare efficiently with a low level of healthcare inputs and can do no better without sizable reform," Gearhart wrote in an unpublished research paper. It could be that some counties -- including
In
"We're not going above and beyond our duty, but we're starting so far down with our health behaviors, demographics and socioeconomics that our providers are moving us way up. They're starting with people who have never seen a doctor before and they're getting them to follow a diet or start exercising or pass behaviors down to children," Gearhart said.
One of the factors analyzed -- health care costs -- is artificially driven up by the county's high teen-birth rates, Gearhart said.
"We need to take into account the differences between population health," Gearhart said. "
Many of the poor health outcomes in the region can be explained away by the types of jobs people here work, Gearhart said.
He pointed to agriculture and oil field jobs, which break down the body at faster rates than those jobs that might be typical in other areas.
While Gearhart is critical of how the foundation collects and weighs data, he said the work is still important because it illustrates "broad brush measures that matter."
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