Study: Platte County one of healthiest places to live in Missouri

The recent release of an annual study shows that Platte County residents are some of the healthiest in the state.The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, which has a mission to improve the health and health care of all Americans, ranked Platte County No. 3 overall in Missouri for health outcomes and No. 1 overall for health factors. The rankings include all 114 counties in the state. According to the foundation’s website, the overall rankings in health outcomes represent how healthy counties are within the state. The ranks are based on two types of measures: how long people live and how healthy people feel while alive.

Platte County ranks No. 4 in length of life and No. 14 in quality of life.

The overall rankings in health factors represent what influences the health of a county. They are an estimate of the future health of counties as compared to other counties within a state. The ranks are based on four types of measures: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic, and physical environment factors.

To take the top spot, Platte County ranked No. 3 in social and economic factors, No. 4 in clinical care, No. 12 in health behaviors and No. 29 in physical environment.

Further explanations and even more data can be found at www.countyhealthrankings.org, including maps that show relative health of each county.