Sometimes we wonder just how much we love spring. It remains our favorite season, of course, but there’s this chronic problem with punctuality.
This year — for not the first time — spring took its own sweet time getting here. It was scheduled to arrive two weeks ago. But we have confidence that this week will be the time to shed jackets, emerge from hibernation and start walking somewhere besides at the mall or back and forth to the ‘fridge.
And we’ve got some new local pride to inspire you toward that more-active lifestyle. Clark County ranks among the 10 healthiest counties in the state, according to a recent report.
We’d like to boast the No. 1 spot, but that distinction is held by San Juan County (county seat Friday Harbor), according to the nationwide County Health Rankings announced by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. But with 39 counties in the state, No. 9 is not bad at all.
The rankings are based on factors such as the rate of people dying before age 72, access to more-healthful foods, air pollution levels and rates of smoking, obesity and teen births. The study did not include such factors as cardiovascular disease, preventive cancers, suicides, homicides or years of productive life lost.
What say we spend the rest of 2011 trying to improve on that No. 9 statewide ranking? Like, perhaps, returning to the No. 8 spot we held last year? Already, Clark County residents have shown how this can be done. One great source of community pride should be the decline in the local smoking rates. Did you know that last year our smoking rate fell to 18 percent, closer than ever to the statewide rate of 17 percent?
Much of this success can be attributed to the statewide ban on smoking indoors in public places. Despite considerable outcry during the presentation of Initiative 901 in 2006, almost 63 percent of voters approved the measure. And Oregon followed with a similar ban in 2009.
We’ve got a lot of good things going for us here when it comes to the crusade for better health. For example, last week’s national report gave Clark County high marks for access to healthful foods (defined as grocery stores, produce stands or farmers markets). About 84 percent of local ZIP codes have such access to healthful foods, compared with the statewide showing of 69 percent.
But we’ve also got some serious public-health challenges that require immediate attention. About 15 percent of county residents have no health insurance.
Also, about 29 percent of us are obese, and when the standard is changed from obese to overweight, about two-thirds of us qualify. Yikes! Too much time languishing in the recliner, too little time wandering along local and regional trails.
Whether you’re portly or ripped, there’s one local challenge that affects all of us: access to health care. In Clark County, there’s one primary care provider for every 970 residents; statewide, that ratio is one for every 736 residents.
So, it’s a mixed bag of news about public health in Clark County. All the more reason to repeat the collective vow to improve our diets and exercise more. Now that spring appears willing to cooperate, that vow is much easier to repeat.
And later in 2011, the time will come to repeat another vow: Please, let this not become another winter when we use the flimsy excuse of lackluster weather to ignore the importance of getting outside and getting busy.
