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Oxford County Gets Ranked Based on Health Statistics

The county comes in 44th out of 101 regions surveyed following 2013 reports

OXFORD COUNTY - An interactive map has placed Oxford County as the 44th healiest place to live out of 101 regions surveyed.

The data used for the map published by the website The10And3.com comes from 2013, and so should be taken with a grain of salt, but it can give us an approximation of where we're at.

Health Protection Program Supervisor Michael Gorgey says the numbers for smoking are encouraging with just over 22% of the population lighting up. "I think a combination of strong policy approaches from the province and strengthening the Smoke Free Ontario Act and that combination with our health promotion programs in the community and enforcement activities, we think we're being successful in helping to reduce this rate."

Oxford County's Manager of Health Promotion Susan McIsaac says this also suggests some of Oxford Public Health's message is getting through to the community. "We have reduced smoking rates. Oxford County is a significant user of tobacco so the fact that we're working on that and reducing, I think that's very good news. And looking at diabetes rates, that's certainly associated with obesity. So seeing that going down indicates that we are having an influence."

McIsaac says it also shows that people are taking their health seriously. "So if you're looking at some of the changes from the previous year, these things are becoming more of a priority for people like asthma, reducing smoking rates, people are interested in air quality in our community."

Summary of the data:

Ranked 44 out of 101 regions included
Asthma rate: 9.3%
Cancer: 438.8 per 100 000 people
Diabetes rate: 6.2%
Overweight: 34.6%
Good perceived mental health: 72.3%
Smoking: 22.2%
Access to a doctor: 97%

To see the rest of the map, visit http://www.the10and3.com/do-you-live-in-one-of-the-unhealthiest-places-in-canada/

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