Editor’s note: The is the first in a series looking at the factors that are part of a recently released health report that named Dallas County and other counties in the Black Belt as the most unhealthy counties in Alabama.

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute recently released its County Health Rankings report, examining the overall health of every county in the nation. According to the report, among Alabama’s 67 counties Shelby, Lee, Baldwin, Madison and Limestone are the top five healthiest counties in Alabama, while Bullock, Perry, Walker, Greene and Dallas rank as the five least healthy counties.

In overall health outcomes, Dallas County ranks 63rd in the state, with high rates in adult smoking, adult obesity, motor crash deaths and teen pregnancy. In addition, Dallas has high percentages of child poverty, unemployment, single-parent households and violent crime.

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., president of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy organization devoted to improving health care, said the health rankings are a composite of different factors.

“The county health rankings help everyone to see that much of what influences our health happens outside of the doctor’s office and where we live matters to our health,” Mourey said. “There are things counties can do right away to help their residents lead healthier lives.”

According to online medical news, the Alabama Strategic Alliance for Health disbursed nearly $4 million to county health departments across the state to be used over a five-year period, to help reduce chronic diseases and health disparities. Three initial counties, Dallas, Sumter and Perry, partner with nine other counties across the Black Belt each year to improve overall community health.

Kathi Needham, project coordinator for Strategic Alliance for Health and Vaughan Community Health Service employee, said the organization’s main goal is to promote physical activity and nutrition.

“We have the farmers’ market that accepts electronic benefit transfers and WIC vouchers for mothers and seniors,” Needham said. “We’ve planted vegetable gardens, with collard greens, potatoes and pumpkins, at Salem and J.E. Terry Elementary schools to help them raise money, and set up walking trails in all eight wards, at the South Dallas Industrial Park and Valley Creek.”

Needham also said her team has taken tobacco models into the city and public schools as an anti-smoking campaign to children.

“We’re taking the models into the private schools as well,” Needham said. “We have two jars, one with tar and the other with phlegm, to represent what the lungs of a smoker look like. We also have a mouth model that has cancer sores on the tongue and healthy and non-healthy lungs.”

The community development and research-based Alabama Cooperative Extension System, has partnered with Alabama Department of Human Resources (Dallas County) and Honda Lock America to provide educational seminars on nutrition, arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The program also offers an Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program for expectant mothers to eat healthy and decrease infant mortality rates, and Nutrition Education Program, for food stamp recipients to help them buy nutritional food and save money.

“The biggest thing is people need to be educated and aware,” said Callie Nelson, county extension coordinator for Dallas County. “The lack of exercise and what we consume affects our health.

“We go into the schools to teach second and third graders the importance of eating right, which in turn influences the parents,” Nelson said. “We have to make an effort to have physical activity in our regular routines and not eat as much fast food.”

A healthy community, Needham said, is important in attracting employers.

“If we provide potential employers with a healthy population then they are more likely to come here,” Needham said. “By providing opportunities like walking trails and workplace wellness, or fitness on site, it really makes a difference.”