Southeast Kansas at bottom of health survey

It’s a rare case for somebody to pray for a rebounding economy so that they can lose their job.

But that’s the case in which Krista Postai, CHC/SEK chief executive officer, said she finds herself. Economically speaking, Postai said, southeast Kansas typically finds itself at the bottom of the state, creating a need for community-based health, and thus, her job.

So Postai said it was no surprise that the Kansas County Health Rankings released Monday by the Kansas Health Institute — ones that focused largely on socioeconomic factors — had southeast Kansas scraping the bottom of the barrel.

“Those numbers are why we exist,” Postai said. “I’d like to put us out of business tomorrow, if there was not a need there. But that’s just not going to happen.

“It makes a case for strong grant applications. But it certainly represents a terrible challenge for us to rise up and try to face.” 

The rankings help to quantify that challenge by measuring health determinants and health outcomes to rank each of Kansas’s 105 counties.

The results, for southeast Kansas, are staggering. Out of the nine counties in the southeast corner of the state, seven are in the state’s bottom 10, including Crawford, Cherokee and Bourbon counties. And all nine found a place in the bottom quartile, with only Neosho County ranking higher than 94th.

“There weren’t any real surprises there,” said Janis Goedeke, Crawford County Health Officer. “So much of that study is based on the economy, and certainly with these struggling economic times, we do have our challenges.”

There are four factors that go into the Health Determinants ranking — health care, health behaviors, socioeconomic factors and physical environment.

Health care includes figures for those without health insurance, those who didn’t receive care, those who didn’t visit the dentist or get their flu vaccines, those with adequate prenatal care and those with breast cancer deaths. Crawford County rated 75th in this category.

Health behaviors range from smoking figures to physical inactivity, obesity, low fruit and vegetable consumption, seat belt wearing, teen birth, sexually transmitted diseases and violent crime. Crawford County was 95th in health behaviors.

Socioeconomic factors include education levels, unemployment rates, children in poverty and divorce rates. Crawford County was also 95th in socioeconomic factors.

Physical environment spans factors like respiratory hazards, secondhand smoking, water purity and lead risks. Crawford County was middle of the pack in physical environment, ranking 52nd.

Meanwhile, the Health Outcomes segment is based on three factors — the years of potential life lost prior to age 75, general health status and low birth weights.

Gianfranco Pezzino, the author of the study, said he aimed to bring together a study that looked at factors like health and health care, while comparing socioeconomic factors.

“With every county, you see something a little different,” Pezzino said. “But a lot of the (lower-rated) counties struggle with poverty and social distress in general.

“Those in southeast Kansas have a higher prevalence of those socioeconomic factors, things like low-wage jobs and higher unemployment rates,” Pezzino said. “Then you compare that to northwest Kansas where you also have rural communities, but the social fabric is better. They tend to be stronger communities.”

Pezzino said the goal of his study was to get counties to ask: “What can we do better?”

“That’s something we hope the report can stimulate,” Pezzino said. “It’s a community matter. It goes beyond health and public health. In order to really improve, communities will need to move together.”

Goedeke said many of those steps are taking place. The Crawford County Health Department has tobacco and smoking informational programs, along with programs focusing on nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases and teen birth. She said the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office was working to implement seat belt awareness programs as well.

“So many of those factors we have already started targeting,” Goedeke said. “But the funding is short. A lot of the programs we have are smaller programs. We need to see an increase in funding to target these problems on a larger level.”

Postai said CHC/SEK was also helping with dental programs targeting children, and added that schools were also stepping up in the fight. But it was a fight that she conceded was an uphill one. 

“We’ve seen a century of shortages, poverty and low quality of health and life, and it’s a result of decades of low economic status,” Postai said. “This has been a hole for generations now. We didn’t get here overnight, and we aren’t going to get better overnight.

“But I think we’re really making headway. It can be done. It will just take a lot of time, attention and awareness, and we’re willing to put that in. If we can start to improve our economic status, our health will follow.”

For a more detailed look at each county and the factors that went into their rankings, visit www.khi.org

Kevin Flaherty can be reached at kevin.flaherty@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 Ext. 134.

* Out of 105 counties