The State of Our Health

For nearly 3 decades, America’s Health Rankings has provided an analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis by evaluating a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental and socioeconomic data to determine national health benchmarks and state rankings.  In their 2018 Annual Report, Oklahoma is ranked 47th in the nation.  The report lists the 33 measures used to make comparisons and points out the strengths and weaknesses in each state.

America’s Health Rankings – Oklahoma

To get data even closer to home, the Oklahoma State Department of Health has a State of the County’s health  report, issued in the summer of 2017.  Although there is not a single ranking comparing overall health of the 77 counties, it does rank certain health factors  such as daily fruit consumption (we are 4th in the state) and percent of physically inactive population (we are 27th).  It also highlights the flagship issues that need to be addressed in our county.

Ottawa County State of the County’s Health Report 2017

Both of these reports are sobering.  But there are many things going on in our county and in the library to help improve these statistics.  In 2013, the Miami Public Library received its first Health Literacy grant from the Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries.  With this grant we started the Health Literacy Project, a cooperative partnership between the Miami Public Library, Northeastern Tribal Health Systems, INTEGRIS Miami Hospital and Ottawa County Health Department.  The project is funded through the Oklahoma Department of Libraries with funds from Library Services and Technology Act, a Federal source of library funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Over the past five years, the Health Literacy Project partners have created two community gardens, held numerous cooking classes for both children and adults, provided diabetes education, tai chi and yoga classes, sponsored a virtual walking tour, provided samples and recipes at the Ottawa County Farmers Market, and much more.

This year’s Health Literacy Project will include a new garden at the L.E.A.D. agency, a seed library, tai chi classes, cooking classes, and a diabetes nutrition class.  More information is available in our Winter Brochure and at the library.  We invite you to join us in improving the state of our health!