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Laurinburg Exchange Report: Scotland County health ranking at 99th By Scott Witten 3/29/16 LAURINBURG — Scotland County has ranked near the bottom in the state in terms of overall health outcomes, according to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. The report, which was released earlier this month, listed Scotland 99th out of North Carolina’s 100 counties. In 2015, Scotland ranked 98th in overall health outcomes. The report is compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and looked at 30 measures, including premature death, respondents’ own views of their health, sick days taken and birth weight. The group releases the study each year. The rankings suggested that rural counties have higher rates of smoking, obesity, child poverty, teen births and higher numbers of uninsured adults than their urban counterparts. Wake County topped the list as the healthiest county followed by Orange County. Union, Camden and Mecklenburg counties rounded out the top five healthiest counties. “We have known for some time that our county faces challenges,” said Wayne Raynor, interim Scotland County health director. “In the 2016 County Health Rankings, Scotland County ranked low on overall health ranking, compared with other counties in the state.” Raynor said the rankings indicated Scotland County is at-risk for poor health when it comes to health behaviors such as adult smoking, obesity, sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy and social and economic factors such as unemployment and violent crime. About 25 percent of county adults are smokers and 37 percent are obese — figures that have changed little since the previous report. For 2016, 66 percent of county resident said they had “adequate access to locations for physical activity,” the same as the previous year’s report. Twenty-seven percent of Scotland adults over 20 report no leisure-time physical activities. According to the report, rates of teen births did see a slight decrease. There were 68 teen births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19, down from 72 in the previous year. But sexually transmitted infections rose from 718 to 825. The rate of diabetes, 82 percent, dropped a percentage point from last year. The study said that 18 percent are without health insurance in Scotland County — about the same as last year — and 42 percent of children are living in poverty. Although that’s a slight decrease from 44 percent in the previous report, it’s still about double the statewide rate.