Montgomery County Ranked Healthiest County In Maryland

ROCKVILLE, MD — Montgomery County has been deemed the healthiest county in Maryland in the annual County Health Rankings (CHR) for Maryland.

The CHR is a collaboration of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The organization compares counties within each state on more than 30 factors that impact health, including social determinants like: jobs, education, housing, exercise, commuting times and more.

The data shows the top five healthiest counties in Maryland are: 1. Montgomery 2. Howard 3. Carroll 4. Frederick and 5. Talbot.

“We are pleased to be ranked first in Maryland,” said Director of the County’s Department of Health and Human Services and Acting Health Officer Uma S. Ahluwalia. "We have focused for several years on improving population health and chronic disease management. We have engaged our hospitals, minority health organizations and other key stakeholders to support our goals for improving population health outcomes and our efforts are paying off."

The rankings use data and analysis that allows counties to see what it is that makes residents sick or healthy, and how they compare to other counties in the same state.

Here are some interesting findings according to the data listed online:

• Nine percent of adults smoke in Montgomery County;
• Twenty percent of Montgomery County adults are obese;
• Ten percent of Montgomery County is uninsured; and
• 89 percent of Montgomery County residents graduate high school.

Montgomery County kicked off Healthy Montgomery, the community health improvement process, in June 2009. The effort brings together health providers, hospitals, insurers, County agencies and community members.

A second Community Health Needs Assessment was recently completed. Co-chaired by County Councilmember George Leventhal and Jackie DeCarlo, executive director of Manna Food, Healthy Montgomery has work groups focused on health issues such as obesity and behavioral health.

The goal is for Healthy Montgomery to continuously update the community’s health status and conduct periodic needs assessments to stay focused on improving health outcomes, a statement from the county says.

"We have more work to do and we will keep our efforts focused on improving health factors and our physical environment,” Ahluwalia said.

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