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Hunterdon is state's healthiest county

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

When it comes to being healthy, it pays to be wealthy.

New Jersey's richest counties, led by Hunterdon, come out on top again in a new national study by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Researchers from the Princeton-based foundation and the university's population Health Institute rated overall health in every county in all 50 states.

They examined a wide range of factors, including access to primary care, lack of health insurance, smoking, obesity, violent crime, child poverty, air pollution, college degrees, even proximity to liquor and food stores.

In New Jersey, the four counties that annually rub shoulders near the top of national income and wealth rankings also scored best in the health study: Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset and Bergen.

The County Health Rankings report shows "people who live in healthier counties tend to have higher education levels, are more likely to be employed, have access to more health care providers, and have more access to healthier foods, parks and recreational facilities," as the foundation described the findings.

"Much of what influences how healthy we are and how long we live happens outside the doctor's office," Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation president and CEO, said in a statement.

In New Jersey, four of the five least healthy counties are clustered in South Jersey, although Essex County beat only Cumberland County, which also ranks last in the state in per-capita and household income.

On a national scale, Cumberland usually is slightly above average in wealth measurements. Comparing data from the new report shows Cumberland is healthier in many categories than low-rated counties elsewhere.

In describing their health, 22 percent of Cumberland respondents chose "fair to poor," compared to 10 percent in Hunterdon. Twice as many Cumberland residents smoke, 26 percent to 13.

Some 27 percent of Cumberland children live in poverty, compared to just 3 percent in Hunterdon. That shows up immediately, as 9 percent of Cumberland infants are classified as low birth weight, compared to 6 percent in Hunterdon.

Almost half of Hunterdon respondents had college degrees, three-and-half times Cumberland's tally. More money leads to practical benefits.

Hunterdon's "primary care provider rate," which includes access to general practice and family physicians, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology, was 209, more than three times the availability in Cumberland.

One reason is that 16 percent of Cumberland adults lack health insurance, compared to 11 percent in Hunterdon.

Despite being rural-suburban areas, though, both counties fared poorly on "access to healthy foods." That is intended to measure proximity to grocery stores and farmers' markets. Both counties were well below the New Jersey average and targets.

Overall, the researchers found that rural areas tend to do poorly. In some categories, the researchers attribute that to distance from medical centers. But other factors also shape medical outcomes.

In most categories, Hunterdon's scores are comparable to other wealthy counties, such as Loudoun in Virginia and Douglas in Colorado.

But in Shannon County, the lowest rated in South Dakota, half the children live in poverty and the primary care provider score is 51. Forty percent of adults are obese and almost half smoke.

Shannon is part of the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation, and is annually ranked as the poorest or among the five poorest counties in the United States. Of the 10 poorest counties in the country, eight include or are within reservations and the remaining two are almost entirely Hispanic along the Rio Grande.

"People, no matter where they live, should have the best possible opportunity to be healthy." Lavizzo-Mourey said.

NEW JERSEY'S COUNTY HEALTH RANKINGS

COUNTY: RANK

Hunterdon: 1

Morris: 2

Somerset: 3

Bergen: 4

Sussex: 5

Monmouth: 6

Middlesex: 7

Burlington: 8

Warren: 9

Ocean: 10

Union: 11

Mercer: 12

Gloucester: 13

Hudson: 14

Passaic: 15

Cape May: 16

Salem: 17

Atlantic: 18

Camden: 19

Essex: 20

Cumberland: 21

Joe Tyrrell may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it