A national heath report released this week ranks Gila County last in Arizona for certain health indicators. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation studied more than 3,000 US counties and ranked them from healthiest to least healthy in each state.
Cronkite News Service reports that the entire state falls well short of national averages on a range of health indicators, from the prevalence of fast food restaurants to the availability of primary care physicians and the teen birth rate.
Gila County’s poor showing for health outcomes is based on its premature death rates, percentage of low-birthweight babies, and reported days of poor physical and mental health. Gila County’s premature death rates are about 50% higher than the state as a whole.
The county’s poor health outcomes come in spite of the fact that it ranked in the middle for health factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise, and access to care.
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