DELAWARE, Oh. – The Delaware General Health District is pleased to announce that Delaware County is the healthiest county in Ohio for the fourth year in a row. 

The 2018 County Health Rankings issued today places Delaware County as first in Ohio for both health outcomes and health factors. Health outcomes focus on how healthy people are presently and health factors are based on how healthy people will be in the future. The rankings, presented by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, are available online at countyhealthrankings.org.

According to the rankings, Delaware County residents engage in the healthiest behavior among Ohio’s 88 counties – a ranking covering nine categories, including adult smoking, adult obesity, food environment, physical inactivity, access to exercises opportunities, excessive drinking, alcohol-impaired driving deaths, sexually transmitted infections and teen births.  

“Our ranking reflects the priority our county has placed on improving the factors that affect residents’ health,” Health Commissioner Shelia Hiddleson said. “It also shows how important it is to sustain services and programs that are currently helping residents stay healthy.”

Hiddleson added that the Health District along with a long list of community partners that make up The Partnership for a Healthy Delaware County work together to help improve health issues as outlined in the 2014-2018 Community Health Improvement Plan, which is in its final year.

“During this last course of the Community Health Improvement Plan, we have seen improvement in anti-bully messaging, obesity prevention, access to fruits and vegetables and drug disposal opportunities,” Hiddleson said. “We want residents to know that we are still fully committed to our county’s health needs, which will be evident when the next Community Health Improvement Plan is created.”

Hiddleson said that it was important to note that while the Health District is seen as the leader in county health issues, these rankings are not a grading system for health departments, but rather a snapshot of the population’s overall health. 

Last Updated on March 14, 2018