The County Health Rankings, a joint project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, has recently published their findings, including those on Kent County. As the below chart indicates, Kent County remains at the lower tier of state ranking, with an overall rank of sixteen out of the twenty-four counties in Maryland. For the full report, click here.
Daniel C. Menefee says
This is good information, the methods can always be challenged, I imagine the leadership here will simply challenge the data and tell us nothing is wrong. We can’t even come to a concensus on a silly plastic bag.
Take this report and then look at the National Cancer Institute’s statistics on Kent County, we are highest in the state for many cancers, and we are near the top nationally.
Daniel Menefee says
Maybe the Spy could seek a response from the commissioners and leaders from the municipalities to see how we can address much of this. I’m assuming the Spy will follow up?
Carla Massoni says
Many years ago, a group tried to work with local and state health officials to address the alarming cancer rates in Kent County. We were informed that we were “statistically irrelevant” and as far as I know nothing was ever done about it.
Keith Thompson says
@Daniel,
Kent County’s statistics could very well be related to its proximity to Delaware which has one of the highest per capita cancer rates in the country.
@Carla.
The “statistically irrelevant” comment likely means that there’s not a big enough population sampling from Kent County to be meaningful for the study meaning that just one or a few cases of cancer has an enormous effect on the overall stats.
adaptor says
Yep, lies, damn lies and statistics.
You nice folks have 4.8X the national benchmark for violent crime (notwithstanding the out-of countiers coming your way for their mayhem)?
Sixteen ozone alert days on your side of the Bay? What did they have over where the interstates, power plants and mills (and hills) are?
And over 3x the national rate for STDs (promiscuous college kids)?
You suffer statisticly from being a rural county in a model geard towards metropolitan areas.