How healthy is Valley? Not very, study shows

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Though part of the Mahoning Valley has gotten a little bit more healthy over the past year, it still ranks in the bottom 25 percent of all 88 counties in the state in overall strong health outcomes, according to a study released last week.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute ranked Mahoning County the 68th healthiest county in Ohio, improving from 71st most healthy in 2017.

Trumbull County, however, ranks 64th this year, down slightly from 61st in 2017.

Falling even farther behind over the past 12 months is Columbiana County, which dropped from 55th place in overall health outcomes 2017 to 63rd place in 2018.

The report looks at health indicators including premature death, smoking, inactivity, clinical-care access, and multiple socioeconomic factors. Rankings are based on a conceptual model that includes health outcomes and health factors.

The report compares Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in a wide variety of categories such as health behaviors.

Read the full story in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com on Monday.