Orange County Among Leaders in Health Survey

A report issued Monday states that Orange County is the second-healthiest of California’s largest counties, ranking at or near the top on most indicators of health status.

County Health Care Agency officials who released the report attributed the relative well-being of the county’s 2.6 million people to the area’s affluence, demographics and relatively good access to health services.

“Orange County is a wealthy community and as a rule, poverty is associated with adverse health status,” said Len Foster, acting public health director. “We have more hospitals, more doctors and a more aware and educated population.”

The report, which compares statistics on death and illness with other counties and with state and national benchmarks through the years 1994 through 1996, showed Orange County ranking first, second or third in 19 of 25 health status indicators.

Only Santa Clara County in Northern California ranked higher among the state’s eight counties with populations of more than 1 million people, according to the analysis.

Among the state’s eight most populous counties, Orange County had the lowest rate of stroke deaths, the lowest African American infant mortality rate and the smallest percentage of infants with dangerously low birth weights.

By comparison, Los Angeles County ranked first in the rate of AIDS cases, syphilis, tuberculosis, homicides and firearm-related deaths.