Wayne County Health Indicators

Overall Wayne County is ranked 46 in health outcomes out of 62 counties in NYS.

Mortality-premature deaths for Wayne County is 6,516, for NYS is 5,812 and for the national benchmark 5,466.  To evaluate mortality premature death was measured.  This is represented in the number of years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population.  An example is a 25 y.o. dies, this is 50 years of potential life lost.  I think that the reason Wayne County has a higher number of potential life lost compared to the state and the national benchmark is due to it being a predominantly rural county.  The access to healthcare is more difficult and knowledge of preventable health or healthy lifestyles are not as well known or as easy to implement.
In regards to morbidity, an equal percentage of people in Wayne County and NYS (16%) thought that their health was of poor to fair condition and the national benchmark was 10%. The average number of days people felt their physical health was not good out of the past 30 days was 4.9 days. Compared to NYS that was 3.5 days and the national bench mark of 2.6 days.  Poor mental health had a similar representation to poor physical health: 4.9 days in Wayne County, 3.3 days in NYS and 2.3 days for the national benchmark. The percentage of births that were considered low birth weight in Wayne county were 6.7% , NYS 8.1% and the national benchmark was 6%.  I believe people feel poorly about their health in Wayne County for the same reasons I mentioned before.  They do not have easy access to healthcare.  Social interaction and an active style of living can be difficult in rural areas and these things are important in overall physical and mental health.
Looking at social economic factors you see that Wayne County has a high high school graduation percentage of 85% and 59% of the population have some college education.  The percentage of unemployed is almost equivalent to that of NYS but is 3% higher than the national average.  Wayne county has a lower percentage of children in poverty than NYS but is almost equal with the state in percentage of children with inadequate social support and children who live in a single parent household.  The violent crime rate in Wayne county is 178 which is drastically less than NYS at 399 but still a great deal higher than the national benchmark of 73. I think a lot of these social economic factors are not as impacted by the rural setting.  Poverty is a problem in many inner city populations along with inadequate support.  Being a child of a single parent household is something I think you will see in all areas and all social economic statuses.  It was very understandable to see that violent crime was lower in a rural county versus the state of NY because this consists of violent face to face encounters.  There is a smaller population in rural counties and the people are more spaced out making violent crime less probable.

One of the health behavior factors that stood out to me was the rate of motor vehicle deaths in Wayne County compared to NYS.  Wayne county had a rate of 16, double that of the state which had 8.  There are a few factors that I thought may have played a roll in this difference.  One is the terrain in rural areas.  Roads are often a little more narrow, curvy or hilly.  These types of roads with poor weather conditions alone can create a more dangerous environment.  In addition, you often see tractors on these roads or buggies and drivers like to pass by these slow moving vehicles.  If they are not using proper technique for passing vehicles and being extra cautious the result can often be deadly.  These roads and situations exist in non-rural counties too just not in as high of a percentage.  Another factor that I thought may have contributed to this higher death rate could be the lack of police enforcement on country roads.  Small towns do not have large police forces that allow them to effectively monitor the country roads and people take advantage of this by speeding and driving recklessly.  The last factor is drunk driving.  This piggy backs off the lack of police enforcement but also has to do with the lack of alternative transportation.  The more rural you are the less likely you are to see a Taxi.  It would be interesting if this statistic were to be broken down to show those accidents caused by people driving under the influence.

Looking at the clinical care statistics it is not hard to see that there is a great need for primary care physicians in Wayne County.  Their ratio of population to primary care physicians is 2,615:1.  This is hard to imagine but also makes some of the earlier statistics easier to understand.  This is why programs like Upstate, that encourage doctors and PAs to practice in rural areas, are so important.  It is not possible to train enough doctors to satisfy that demand so physician extenders like PAs and NPs are a very important asset for healthcare in rural communities.

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/new-york/2012/wayne/county/2/2