This year, Marshall County moved up in the health outcomes category of the annual County Health Rankings report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
Out of all 92 counties within the state of Indiana, Marshall County ranks in the 15th spot for health outcomes, compared to spot number 16 where the county was ranked in 2017.
Health outcomes are measured by assessing the frequency of premature death and certain quality of life factors such as the percentage of poor physical and mental health days and low birth weights. When you compare Marshall County’s health outcome ranking to the surrounding area, there is a major difference.
Neighboring counties, including St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko, Fulton and Starke counties all ranked lower with Kosciusko coming closest at 29th place and Starke being the furthest away ranked 79th for health outcome.
While Marshall County did perform better in the health outcomes category this year, there was a drop in rankings in another area that is considered in the report, which is the health factors category.
That section incorporates health behaviors, such as smoking, obesity and teen birth rates as well as the physical environment of a county, social and economic factors and clinical care statistics. In health factors Marshall County ranks 25 out of 98 which is actually 4 spots lower than where they were last year.
Even though the county did move down a little in the health factor category, it is still fairing far better than surrounding counties of St. Joseph, Starke, Fulton and Elkhart which ranked 57th, 86th, 53rd and 45th respectively. The only county that outperformed Marshall was Kosciusko County which was only ranked one place higher.
Click the following links to view the entire report for Marshall County, to compare counties or to learn more about the County Health Rankings report.
