Fulton County remains in the top quarter of Georgia counties on overall health outcomes and health factors according to the 2011 County Health Rankings report released by the University of Wisconsin and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Project. Fulton County’s overall health ranking was 26 out of 156 counties for health outcomes. The overall ranking for Health Factors is 13. Health Behavior factors such as smoking, obesity, education, crime, and unemployment rates were rated. In comparison to two other metro counties, Gwinnett and DeKalb, Fulton ranked No. 4. Gwinnett was 6th and DeKalb was 8th.

The three Metro counties, Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett, did not fare well in the area that measured environmental quality, which includes air quality and traffic congestion. Fulton County’s ranking for Physical Environment improved over the previous year. One strategy the Fulton County Board of Commissioners used to address this issue was to implement a No Idling Policy for county owned and operated vehicles to limit idling to no more than 15 minutes except in response to emergency situations.

Fulton County’s Division of Health Promotion is addressing the county’s smoking policy and its effects on residents, offering exercise and nutrition courses to address obesity in children and adults and offering numerous educational courses covering chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer prevention. For more information about the County Health Rankings report, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org. For more information about Fulton County Division of Health Promotion, call (404)730-1343 or log on to www.fultoncountygahealth.org.