County gets top rank for state health: Economic prosperity, education bolster health; housing costs remain problematic

San Mateo County was ranked No. 1 in the state by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s annual County Health Rankings, a national report released Wednesday.

The health care-focused philanthropic group releases data as a way to highlight how location influences health, and to provide communities a starting point for where to prioritize improvements. Locally, the housing crisis and long commutes top San Mateo County’s pitfalls.

The myriad factors considered in the rankings include education, jobs, access to medical care, housing, rates of violence and health care coverage. The nearly 30 indicators are categorized under physical environment, social and economic factors, clinical care, health behaviors, and quality as well as length of life.

“We are of course honored,” said Srija Srinivasan, deputy chief of the Health System. “It’s really about the community as a whole embracing health as a priority and definitely our economic well-being. As a community we know that income and … educational attainment are tied to being healthy.”

A number of Bay Area counties also topped the list. Marin County came in second while Santa Clara County came in third. Sonoma, Napa, Alameda and Contra Costa counties ranked in the top 10 and San Francisco earned the 11th spot.

Recognizing the ties between health and wealth, the news may not come as a huge surprise considering Bloomberg last week announced Atherton was the wealthiest city in the United States and Hillsborough came in fourth. San Mateo County was the only in all 50 states to boast two cities that hit the top 10 list.

San Mateo County is one of about 20 or so in the state that has its own county-run hospital and health insurance plan. The county has also done well to make sure more residents have health insurance, with more than 91 percent now covered.

While having ranked high for a number of years, it’s due to collaboration and recognizing that health is about long-term objectives, Srinivasan said.

“We’ve been fortunate to be among the healthiest for several years and a lot of that is a testament to the economic prosperity we have, as well as the leadership from the Board of Supervisors outward to the entities we partner with,” Srinivasan said. “Entities that have health as a shared priority. We do a lot of partnering with schools, and cities, and nonprofit organizations, parents, there’s so many people who make a healthy reality come to life every day.”

San Mateo County earned the state’s top spot for length of life, which covered rates of premature death before age 75; as well as for social and economic factors, which include education, unemployment rates, the number of children living in poverty or with single-parent households, and rates of violent crime.

It came in second for health behaviors marked by exercise, excessive drinking, obesity rates and teen births; and ranked fifth in clinical care, which covers access to doctors, mental health providers and monitoring for diabetes.

The county’s lowest score was in the physical environment category, coming in at 29th out of 57. It covered the region’s well-known struggles such as having severe housing problems, higher numbers of people who commute long distances to work while driving alone, and air pollution.

Knowing that wealth and education are closely linked to health, Srinivasan said there’s progress to be made as not everyone has shared in the prosperity.

“The great health outcomes that most of our residents enjoy is not distributed equally,” she said. “Conditions like where people live, and how they live, and how they spend their time getting to and from jobs has been a key part of what we work on in terms of creating the conditions for people to be healthy.”

The report highlights that 70 percent of people drive alone to work, another 37 percent drive long commutes, and 24 percent are facing severe housing problems such as overcrowding or high costs.

“We still have work to do,” Srinivasan said, while noting the county is aiming to make progress through its Home For All Initiative. “When people aren’t able to have stable affordable housing, health suffers. People make trade-offs about what they can afford. If they don’t have a roof over their head, everything else is secondary.”

While San Mateo County earned California’s top spot for overall health outcomes, it came in second when comparing health factors such as the environment category.

It did however, rate relatively low in the number of premature deaths — which the foundation said is rising across the nation drastically in people ages 15-44. The national epidemic of drug overdoses is the leading cause of death among 25 to 44 year olds. It’s also accelerating amongst 15 to 24 year olds, a group more affected by homicide, suicide and motor vehicle crashes, according to the foundation.

In part, Srinivasan credited San Mateo County’s lower rates of premature deaths to collaboration with physicians and pharmacies to deter opioid addictions.

Having been named the healthiest county in California is due to a communitywide effort to help residents lead “longer and better lives,” she said.

Visit countyhealthrankings.org for more information.

samantha@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106