How Healthy is Santa Cruz County?
It’s not just diet and exercise—where people live matters to their health.
And in California, Santa Cruz County earns a decent rating for community health, according to the 2013 County Health Rankings released this week.
Santa Cruz comes in No. 13 in the state for health outcomes, measured by mortality and morbidity. The county ranks 10th for health factors, a broad category that includes health behaviors (like smoking), healthcare, the physical environment, and social and economic factors.
“These ratings are a snapshot of the health of the community,” said Dr. Lisa Hernandez, Santa Cruz County Health Officer.
Fifty-seven of California’s 58 counties were ranked. Rural Alpine County was too small to measure in many of the categories, officials said.
Santa Cruz County’s marks puts the county ahead of neighboring Monterey County but lagging behind Santa Clara County.
County Health Rankings 2013 | ||
County | Health Outcomes | Health Factors |
Monterey | 21 | 29 |
San Benito | 10 | 23 |
Santa Clara | 3 | 4 |
Santa Cruz | 13 | 10 |
Santa Cruz has earned better ratings in prior years. Officials attributed the decline in rankings to other counties’ improving health, not worsening conditions in Santa Cruz County.
Some highlights from the report:
- The county saw improvement in the number of adult residents who have graduated from high school, which up to 86 percent at last count. The low in the past four years was 77 percent.
- Santa Cruz County ranked 16th in the state for access to recreational facilities.
- The county’s motor vehicle crash death rate is the 9th lowest in California.
But 19 percent of children in the county live in poverty, and the ratio of physicians to patients climbed, from one doctor per 923 patients in 2012 to one per 1,047 this year.
Check out Santa Cruz County’s rankings in various categories over the past four years below. A lower rating is better.
Santa Cruz County Health Rankings | ||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
Health Outcomes (total) | 8 | 7 | 10 | 13 |
Morality | 6 | 7 | 10 | 10 |
Morbidity | 7 | 7 | 13 | 20 |
Health Factors (total) | 8 | 20 | 10 | 10 |
Health Behaviors | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
Clinical Care | 19 | 24 | 13 | 12 |
Social & Economic Factors | 13 | 17 | 23 | 21 |
Physical Environment | 37 | 5 | 10 | 9 |
The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program began in 2010 as a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin.
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This story was taken form www.watsonville.patch.com and was written by Jennifer Squires. Scurich Insurance did not create this content–we just wanted to share it with you!