(KYTX) - East Texas counties are some of the least healthy in the state. A University of Wisconsin study broke down health finding by state and county, based on risk factors.
There are 221 counties in the state of Texas. Unfortunately, lots of East Texas counties have some of the lowest health rankings.
For example, Anderson County ranked 207, Cherokee County was at 174, and Henderson County ranked 172.
But there is some positive news - Smith County jumped one spot up from last year, and is at number 65.
"I was really shocked," says Tylerite Jessica Bachelor.
Low county health rankings are concerning, but the first order of business is looking at what is being ranked in the first place.
Stephanie Taylor with the Northeast Texas Health District says, "They rank you on two basic things: your health outcomes, which is your current health, today's health, and your health factors which is factors or behaviors that people do on a day to day basis."
Health factors include things like eating unhealthy, or smoking. People cut down on both in Smith County this year.
The Northeast Texas Public Health District, or NET Health, provides health care to East Texans, and knows where help is needed.
"The other counties may not rate so well because they don't have as good of access to care as we do here," Taylor says. "A lot of East Texans come to Tyler for medical care."
John Wolfe knows that first hand. He comes to Tyler from Mt. Pleasant for his dialysis treatment.
"If I've got to come to the hospital, I want to come to Tyler," he says.
The hope is to establish better healthcare in struggling counties.
Now, that is possible. The state health department has given NET Health a $700,000 grant.
$300,000 goes to Smith County, which will also benefit people nearby struggling counties. $200,000 each goes to Wood and Van Zandt counties, which both rank near the bottom of the healthy counties list.
Taylor says, "We're doing this Transforming Texas Grant project in the three counties and we hope that in our future county health rankings, we'll start to see some of those factors like obesity and smoking to decrease."
They plan to do that with three strategies: supporting non smoking ordinances, making sure rural counties have access to healthy food, and lastly, educating people how to stay healthy and out of hospitals.
Right now NET Health is in the assessment phase, but soon you'll start seeing new health programs implemented across East Texas to bring these rankings up over the next 5 years.
The state and NET Health worked together to decide which counties to support with the grant money.
