In the NNPHD service area, one measure of how the public health system is doing to reach an improved status of overall health, is the percentage of adults 18 and older who report that their general health is fair or poor.  This measure is based on responses to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) question: “In general, would you say that your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?” 

As we age, our risk of poor or fair health increases. This means that counties with older populations (like Cedar) are more likely to have a higher proportion of their population in poor or fair health compared with counties with younger populations. Every county population has a different age distribution, so an adjustment is made to account for the age distribution in order to fairly compare the risk of fair or poor health for residents across different counties. Adjusting for age removes the effect of age as a risk factor on fair or poor health since aging is not preventable.

The individual counties that make up NNPHD show variance in this measure.  In 2019, three of the four counties had a lower percentage of adults reporting poor or fair health with only Thurston County reporting poor or fair health above the Nebraska average at 24%, although the other three counties were at or near the Nebraska average of 14%.   

To compare between counties, click on one of these links: undefined

• Cedar Percent of adults reporting fair or poor health (age-adjusted) undefined
• Dixon Percent of adults reporting fair or poor health (age-adjusted) undefined
• Thurston Percent of adults reporting fair or poor health (age-adjusted) undefined
• Wayne Percent of adults reporting fair or poor health (age-adjusted)