KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The annual county health rankings from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are out, and once again, it doesn't look good for Wyandotte County.
For the last ten years, Wyandotte has ranked at or near the bottom among Kansas counties in terms of health. This year, the county ranks 99 out of 102 counties reporting, with 105 counties total.
"We were not surprised. We realize that the work of improving the overall health of Wyandotte County is really a generational lift," said Jerry Jones, executive director of Community Health Council of Wyandotte County.
Here's a look at where the county has ranked over the past decade:
2018 — 99 out of 103
2017 — 101 out of 102
2016 — 101 out of 101
2015 — 94 out of 101
2014 — 96 out of 98
2013 — 99 out of 102
2012 — 97 out of 100
2011 — 96 out of 98
Jones said that one issue in particular has a major impact on the overall health of the county.
"I think access to safe and affordable housing is really the health equity issue of the next decade," Jones said. "We know that more than 16 percent of residents in Wyandotte County are spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing."
The health rankings are based on more than just weight, but exercise has recently gotten a big push in Kansas City, Kansas.
The downtown YMCA closed down, and plans for a new one are on hold. For Matt Warner, who owns several gyms, it's a need he's trying to fill. After seeing success at his Metro 24 gym in Argentine, Warner is looking at downtown for his next location.
"We want to make sure it's easily accessible to everybody, that's why our overall goal is to be in every neighborhood in Wyandotte County," Warner said. "But we've also got to have more grocery stores that provide fresh produce at affordable prices."
Warner said his membership has gone from a dozen to 300 members a day, which he said proves that fitness can work in lower-income communities.
"If we can make it as easy as possible...we want to make it something they're doing four, five times a week," Warner said.
A new downtown grocery store, plans for a northeast grocery store, expanded walking trails, anti-tobacco campaigns and increasing graduation rates are all improvements that Wyandotte County has seen in recent years.
Jones said the launch of Enroll Wyandotte has also helped many people get healthcare coverage.
However, the annual rankings will not reflect this work for another few years.
"The 2019 rankings published today are really an indicator of work done three to five years ago," said Juliann Van Liew with the Unified Government Public Health Department. "For example, the adult smoking rate reported in the 2019 rankings is actually 2016 data, but that data will represent the work the community did around tobacco several years prior to 2016."
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas just launched a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) that will focus on reducing violence and increasing access to affordable healthcare, housing and education, all of which contribute to the county's poor health ranking.
“Other measures have trended negatively. These include the adult obesity rate, rate of sexually transmitted infections and rate of children in poverty," Public Health Director Terry Brecheisen said. "These should be explored and may be cause for expanding community-based change efforts."
The rankings also look at disparities between racial groups. According to the data, 18 percent of white children in Wyandotte County are living in poverty, compared to 34 percent of Latino children and 42 percent of black children.
"Wyandotte County has a proud heritage of having multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities within its borders. The goal is to achieve health equity for all residents," Brecheisen said.
Wyandotte County often sits at the bottom of these rankings with southeastern, rural counties including Labette, Chautauqua, Woodson and Greenwood.
Jones said Wyandotte and some of those rural communities often have higher unemployment rates than the national average, as well as low graduation rates and a lack of job opportunities.
Elsewhere in the metro, Johnson County ranks as the healthiest county in the state and has ranked in the top two for the last decade.
