S.L.-Ogden area good for women's health

The Salt Lake-Ogden metro area hits the Top 5 best list for women's health twice on Self magazine's just-released ranking of the country's biggest 100 metro areas.

In both cases — No. 3 for "healthiest hearts" and No. 2 for "least smoky" — lifestyle choices were cited by the magazine, which took "about 6,000 pieces of data in nearly 50 different categories across all the things that can affect women's health" to come up with rankings, said Sara Austin, Self news director, who wrote the story.

Overall, Salt Lake City-Ogden ranked 21. No. 1 is Nassau-Suffolk counties, N.Y. And the bottom spot belongs to Cincinnati.

The factors included death and disease rates, access to health care, environmental issues, crime rates and the habits of women that live in the area, said Austin in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"Then we asked a panel of experts which of those factors have the most impact on your health," she said.

"That's why we might give smoking rates more weight than access to plastic surgeons."

Some communities earned "extra credit with certain issues, like programs to fight obesity,"

Most of the data used comes from government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she said. Collecting it takes about six months.

As for the healthy heart, "Women here — many of whom are Mormon and so don't smoke — are not only 45 percent less likely to die of heart disease than women nationally, but also have our list's lowest cancer death rate," the magazine says.

When the topic is smoking, it says, "nearly 86 percent of residences in Salt Lake County have a no-smoking rule, some inspired by a program that encourages apartment managers and residents to sign a smoke-free-home pledge."

Although the ranking is an annual event, different criteria are chosen year to year. Dental health and sunburns debuted this year, for instance, Austin said.

"We think this is fun and readers respond to it," she said. "We all like to see how we compare to other places."

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y, was lauded for best rates of mammography and clinical breast examination, while Nashville reportedly has the "best skin." With the most plastic surgeons in an area, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton is "vainest" and Detroit is the "least safe."

Other categories include fittest (Seattle), best and worst eaters (Ventura, Calif., and Huntington, W.Va./Ashland, Ky.) and most stressed (Las Vegas, which is also "smokiest").

The issue is on newsstands now.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com