Caitlin Schmidt Residents of six Arizona counties have better overall health than people living in Pima County, a new study shows.
Pima also ranked 7th in health outcomes, which inform how long people live on average within a community, and how much physical and mental health people experience in a community while they are alive. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio “Our findings reveal that people and places thrive when all residents have the chance to participate in their communities,” Sheri Johnson, principal investigator of County Health Rankings and Roadmaps and director of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, said in a news release.
Very rural areas where the population tends to be older and have more chronic disease and also lower income have some of the biggest challenges to overcome, Derksen said. Derksen said the health workforce shortage, while concerning by itself, disproportionately impacts rural and underserved communities, which struggle to recruit and retain healthcare workers.