MPH’s Buntin weighs in on Chattanooga’s latest health ranking
Chattanooga ranked 132nd, behind Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee, although well ahead of Memphis, which ranked third from the bottom — a dishonor awarded to Detroit.As with any such survey, the results depended on the criteria used for the ranking. The "health care" category, for example, was based on the cost of a medical or dental visit; the number of family doctors, dentists, hospital beds, and mental health counselors per capita; health insurance coverage; and premature death rates, among others. Chattanooga ranked a dismal 144th.
"This doesn't tell us a lot of what we didn't already know," said Dr. Melinda Buntin, chair of the department of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. "What the patterns say to me, is that places where we have lower incomes, there is less access to healthy restaurants and fitness clubs and primary care doctors."