Cerro Gordo health rankings

All Iowa counties have been ranked according to factors that affect health. The County Health Rankings are a collaborative effort between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Health Institute, which measures the health of nearly all counties in the country and ranks them within each state.

There are two main categories that the county is ranked, Overall Health Outcomes and Overall Health Factors, with different factors in each category.

Overall Health Outcomes

Cerro Gordo County ranked number 52 out of 99 in this category. This section has two factors, length of life and quality of life.

Length of life puts Cerro Gordo County at 44th in the state, and is measured by Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) per 100,000. Cerro Gordo had 6,000 YPLL from 2011-2013 when the data was collected. The state average was 5,900.

Quality of life puts Cerro Gordo a bit lower, at 62nd out of 99.

12 percent of residents noted that they have poor or fair health, with 7 percent of live births reporting low birth weight. Three residents reported have poor mental or physical health days in the past 30 during the compilation of data. 

Read the full article in the March 30 edition of the Enterprise.