Report: Where you live affects your health

FINGER LAKES --Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency has released their2017 report documenting health conditions and statistics for nine counties in the region.
Founded in 1974, Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency is located in Rochester and serves the nine-county Finger Lakes region.
Information gathered for the report comes from a number of sources.
The agency uses state health information and the census, student weight reporting, education and labor department numbers, Medicare and Medicaid data, state vital statistics and a number of other public and proprietary data sources.
Even though this group has tracked county health data for decades, the 2017 report (released Feb. 8) is the first time they have produced individual county profiles.
The numbers for Yates county show several key health statistics compared to other upstate residents. They include:
• Life expectancy in Yates county is 77 years.
• Yates County residents reported lower rates of fast food and sugary drink consumption, as compared to upstate New Yorkers in general.
• Fewer Yates County residents report having done leisure time physical activity in the past 30 days (64 percent) as compared to other upstate New Yorkers (74 percent).
• Fewer Yates County residents smoke (14 percent) than upstate New York residents in general (17 percent). However, Yates County residents have higher rates of premature death due to conditions linked with smoking, such as chronic lower respiratory disease, heart attacks and cancer.
• One in 11 Yates County residents (9.2 percent) report having 14 or more poor mental health days in the past month, which is less than the upstate New York average of 11.5 percent.
• More than 3,400 residents --14.5 percent of Yates County's population--live below the federal poverty level according to U.S. Census statistics. Poverty is found in areas throughout the entire county. Research shows that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to higher incidence of chronic disease, shorter life expectancy and lower rates of good social, emotional and physical health.
• The leading cause of death reported in the study includes cancer, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease along with injury, diabetes and stroke.
The numbers for Schuyler County show several key health statistics compared to other upstate residents. They include:
• Life expectancy in the county is 77.9 years.
• More than 22 percent of Schuyler County adults smoke, as compared to an average 17 percent of upstate New York residents. Schuyler County residents also have higher rates of premature death due to conditions linked with smoking, such as chronic lower respiratory disease, heart attacks and cancer.
• Schuyler County lags behind other upstate New York residents in leisure time physical activity. Nearly 68 percent of residents reported participating in physical activity in their leisure time in the past 30 days, as compared to nearly 74 percent of upstate New York residents in general.
• Fewer residents reported eating fast food three or more times a week and drinking one or more sugary drinks daily, as compared with upstate New York averages.
• One in six Schuyler County residents (17 percent) report having 14 or more poor mental health days in the past month, compared to 12 percent of upstate New York residents in general.
• More than 2,800 residents --15.4 percent of Schuyler County's population--live below the federal poverty level according to U.S. Census statistics. The concentration of poverty is highest in Dundee, Bradford and Montour Falls.
Several key diagrams for Yates, Schuyler and Steuben Counties are shown on the right.
"Where you live can significantly affect your health, your health behaviors and eventually your health outcomes," said Albert Blankley, director of research and analytics for FLHSA. "People may be close geographically, but their health outcomes often are worlds apart."
For reports on the remaining eight counties in the Finger Lakes Region, and additional data reports for Yates County, visit their website at: www.flhsa.org/data/counties.