LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An annual ranking that shows the healthiest and least healthy counties in California has once again place Lake County near the bottom of the list.

The eighth annual County Health Rankings, released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, ranked San Mateo County ranks healthiest in California and Modoc County the least healthy county in the state.

Lake was among the five counties with the poorest health, ranking No. 56, just one spot higher than Modoc. Other counties in that group included Trinity, Siskiyou and Kern. Alpine was not ranked.

Top counties with the best health, in addition to San Mateo, were Marin, Santa Clara, Placer and Sonoma.

"The County Health Rankings show us that where people live plays a key role in how long and how well they live," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president and chief executive officer. "The rankings allow local leaders to clearly see and prioritize the challenges they face – whether it's rising premature death rates or the growing drug overdose epidemic – so they can bring community leaders and residents together to find solutions."

The report’s local level data makes it clear that good health is influenced by many factors beyond medical care including housing, education, jobs and access to healthy foods.

This year the study also took a closer look at premature deaths –  or deaths that occur among people under age 75.

Exploring California's premature death trends from 1997 to 2014, the study found that 42 counties have seen improvements in premature death rates, while three have seen worsening rates and the rest saw no change.

For premature death, Lake County also ranked poorly, earning the No. 56 spot, only slightly improved from the No. 57 rating it received in 2016.

For physical environment, Lake County ranked far higher, at No. 36, while it earned a No. 47 ranking for quality of life, No. 49 both for health behaviors and clinical care, and No. 50 for social and economic factors.

While Lake County ranked No. 56 for health outcomes, it ranked slightly better – at No. 49 – for health factors.

The key findings for the health rankings also showed that drug overdose deaths are fueling a dramatic increase in premature deaths nationally because of an increase in deaths among 15 to 44 year olds. From 2014 to 2015, 85 percent of the increase in premature deaths can be attributed to a swift increase in deaths among these younger populations.

The rankings did not specifically break down how those deaths may be influencing Lake County’s outcomes.

Earlier this year, the results of the 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment was released for Lake County, which confirmed the county’s challenges.

Every three years the county is required by the federal government to assess the health of its residents using metrics such as average age of mortality, rate of preventable diseases, and availability of health-related resources, according to a report from Sutter Lakeside Hospital and St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake.

That assessment revealed that Lake County has shown improvement in the areas of mental health resources, access to healthcare, homelessness and housing, drug and alcohol abuse services, and preventative health education.

In looking at the data released Wednesday, Lake County Health Officer Karen M. Tait, M.D., said she didn’t see any major changes in this year’s outcomes.

However, she noted that some of the data is from as far back as 2012, so it is not necessarily reflective of recent years, with the expectation that the wildland fires of 2015 and 2016 could impact future air quality rankings.

“While some of the data are not from as far back as 2012, the lag over several years means that the rankings are not reflective our current status,” she said. “Many of the major findings still probably hold true, but I believe that we will need to be patient to see the results of the significant changes in healthcare that have taken place over the past several years.”

Tait said those changes include the introduction of Partnership HealthPlan of California, which now serves more than 40 percent of Lake County’s population and is open to innovative ways to meaningfully improve health outcomes.

“Other initiatives, such as Hope Rising and Safe Rx Lake County have been very active in the past couple of years and local clinic systems are approaching healthcare much more holistically than in the past,” Tait said. “Even though it often takes many years for good results to be evident in population health data, I would hope that nobody is too discouraged by these 2017 health rankings, as they don’t reflect the here and now.”

Tait added, “We can still accept that we have real challenges in areas like smoking, shortages of clinical services and social determinants of health including poverty and single-parent households. We should continue to pay attention to these health risk factors.”

She said that when the county receives its rankings in the future, factors to be considered should include the possible impacts of the significant trauma the community experienced from the fires of 2015 and 2016, and the flood earlier this year.

“I’m hoping we are on a more even keel as we move forward and that our community’s health will eventually reflect better times,” Tait said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.