According to the 2017 County Health Rankings, Forsyth County has once again been named the healthiest county in Georgia. This is the fifth consecutive that Forsyth County was awarded the top spot!

The County Health Ranking list is an annual study organized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The rankings are based on a model of population health that emphasizes the many factors that can help make communities healthier places, such as length of life and health behaviors.

Forsyth County ranked first in the state for health outcomes. This aspect of the study calculated the county’s length of life by using the combined number of years lost due to dying before age 75 per 1,000 residents. Forsyth County reflected 4,100 years of early death compared to the state’s rate of 7,300 years.

Forsyth County also ranked high in quality of life, health behaviors and social/economic factors. Some of these factors included smoking rates, healthy food availability, education levels and child poverty levels.

“It’s exciting to think that we’re continuing to lead the state in health rankings,” commented Lynn Jackson, administrator of Northside Hospital Forsyth.

“I think that’s a never-ending battle to find out how we can be a healthier community. We still have several health risks; We still have a number of babies born to teenage mothers. We still have a good bit more of drug use and mental illness than we would like to have. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves and think we don’t still have needs, but it definitely shows that we’re continuing to lead the state.”

January 23, 2018 forumspeaks