Clark County ranks as 6th-healthiest county in Nevada, study says

Clark County ranks as the sixth healthiest county in Nevada, according to a new study, with Douglas County in the top spot and Mineral County at the bottom.

The study by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute analyzes multiple factors pertaining to health, including prevalence of smoking, obesity, physical activity, sexually transmitted diseases and more.

It also looks at health outcomes, including premature death, percentage of adults reporting fair or poor health, and numbers of poor physical health days and poor mental health days in a given month.

In Clark County, the years of potential life lost before age 75 numbered 7,400 per 100,000 population when adjusted for age. In Nevada overall, that figure was 7,500. In the U.S., it was 7,300.

In the county, the leading causes of death in those under 75, in the order of prevalence, were heart disease, cancer, accidents, COVID-19 and chronic lower respiratory diseases, according to the study, which used data from 2018 through 2020.

Clark County fared well when it came to “access to exercise opportunities.” Ninety-six percent of the county’s population had access to exercise opportunities, compared with 90 percent in Nevada and just 80 percent across the U.S.

Clark County was similar to the state and national norms when it came to smoking (17 percent), adult obesity (30 percent) and physical inactivity (27 percent).

In terms of sexually transmitted infections, the county fared poorly, with 619.6 newly diagnosed cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in 2019, compared with 578.8 across Nevada and 551.0 across the U.S.

In Clark County, 21 percent of adults reported being in fair or poor health, compared with 20 percent overall in Nevada and 17 percent in the U.S.

Survey data showed that adults in the county reported that their physical health was not good on 4.1 days of the previous month, compared with 4.2 days in adults across the state and 3.9 days in adults across the U.S.

Adults in the county reported 4.4 poor mental health days in the prior month, compared with 4.7 in adults across Nevada and 4.5 in adults across the U.S.

The data provided in the study can be used to “inform targeted community health improvement efforts in the coming year,” said Dr. John Packham, associate dean at UNR’s School of Medicine.

The university is located in Northern Nevada’s Washoe County, which ranked as the second healthiest county in the state. Nevada’s counties were ranked from No. 1 to No. 16, with Esmeralda County not ranked.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.