{"id":507408,"date":"2021-06-29T00:04:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T04:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/u-s-news-and-aetna-foundation-release-2021-healthiest-communities-rankings\/"},"modified":"2021-06-29T00:04:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T04:04:12","slug":"u-s-news-and-aetna-foundation-release-2021-healthiest-communities-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/u-s-news-and-aetna-foundation-release-2021-healthiest-communities-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. News and Aetna Foundation Release 2021 Healthiest Communities Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Updated rankings platform underscores the connection between physical health and a community’s mental health; features COVID-19 vaccine rates.<\/h2>\n

PR Newswire<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n WASHINGTON<\/span>, June 29, 2021<\/span> \/PRNewswire\/ —\u00a0U.S. News & World Report, in collaboration with the\u00a0<\/a>Aetna Foundation<\/a><\/u>, an independent, charitable and philanthropic affiliate of CVS Health, today released the fourth annual\u00a0<\/a>Healthiest Communities<\/a><\/u> rankings. This year’s rankings are accompanied by tools highlighting county-level COVID-19 vaccine rates and other pandemic data, as well as editorial explorations of equity and mental health \u2013 key components that can shape overall health and well-being.<\/p>\n

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In the 2021 rankings, the top five Healthiest Communities score above the national average in at least eight of the 10 categories used in the analysis, including\u00a0<\/a>Los Alamos County, New Mexico<\/span><\/a><\/u> \u2013 the first community to repeat as No. 1 since the launch of the Healthiest Communities rankings in 2018. In the 2021 rankings, the County posted its highest scores in the Housing, Population Health and Infrastructure categories. Douglas<\/span><\/a>County, Colorado<\/span><\/a><\/u>, came in at No. 2, followed by\u00a0<\/a>Falls Church, Virginia<\/span><\/a><\/u>, at No. 3.\u00a0<\/a>Loudoun County, Virginia<\/span><\/a><\/u>, moved to No. 4, and\u00a0<\/a>Broomfield County, Colorado<\/span><\/a><\/u>, rounded out the list at No. 5.<\/p>\n

“The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted deep wounds on multiple aspects of a community’s well-being \u2013 from which it will take time to recover. A county’s population health metrics, including mental health, health outcomes and access to care, have been adversely affected, along with major hits to education, economy and equity,” said Kim Castro<\/span>, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News. “This year’s Healthiest Communities rankings name not only the leading counties in the country, but also produce data reflecting other predictors of individual and community health as the country begins to recover.”<\/p>\n

The 2021 rankings are accompanied by editorial pieces exploring, for example, connections between community vaccine data and <\/a>other health-related metrics<\/a><\/u>. The U.S. News editorial team also examines issues of equity around Hennepin County, Minnesota<\/span><\/a><\/u> \u2013 a top 500 county that was the site of George Floyd’s<\/span> murder by a police officer in May 2020<\/span> \u2013 and of mental health in Hawaii<\/span>, where Honolulu<\/span><\/a>County<\/a><\/u> posted the country’s highest score in that subcategory of the rankings.<\/p>\n

“Over the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated several issues that we knew existed within the health care system, including the interdependence between the health of our communities and our personal health.” said Karen Lynch<\/span>, president and chief executive officer of CVS Health Corporation. “While our country appears to be turning a corner on the pandemic, with more people getting vaccinated everyday, we understand that there is a lot of important work that still needs to be done to address the underlying community health issues that were brought to the forefront during the pandemic.”<\/p>\n

Separate from the rankings, the COVID-19 tools, which track case numbers, death rates, unemployment and more, have been updated to include vaccine data. These tools complement the rankings data to highlight the relationship between the coronavirus pandemic and community health. Based on a U.S. News analysis, counties that performed well in the Healthiest Communities rankings have slightly lower COVID-19 case rates than average.<\/p>\n

Some other key findings from the 2021 Healthiest Communities Rankings include:<\/p>\n