Oswego County is ranked one of the least healthy counties in New York, according to a report by County Health Rankings and Roadmaps (CHR&R), a program by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

In 2023, CHR&R ranks Oswego County 49th of 62 counties in New York regarding health outcomes, factors and behaviors.

One of the most significant factors in Oswego’s low ranking is poverty, said Laura Brown, a professor of Human Development at SUNY Oswego. 

In 2020, the poverty rate in Oswego County was 17.24%, Brown said. Nearly 35% of Oswego County is “poor” or “near poor.”

Poverty can be a “driving force” for things like obesity and smoking, said Diane Oldenburg, an associate public health educator at the Oswego County Health Department. 

“More people with lower incomes smoke than people at higher income levels,” Oldenburg said. Smoking and obesity can then contribute to poor health outcomes, such as cancer, lung disease and heart disease. 

According to the CHR&R data, 20% of adults in Oswego County smoke, compared to 12% in New York, and 33% of adults are obese in the county, compared to 27% statewide. 

Impaired driving is also a significant health behavior problem in the county, with 33% of motor vehicle crash deaths involving alcohol compared to 20% in the state, the CHR&R data said. Oldenburg added that deaths of this nature in the county “are probably in younger patients or younger residents.”

Although it is not “included in the overall ranking” of the counties, the CHR&R report also noted that Oswego County has a higher rate of drug overdoses compared to New York state overall, with 25 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people compared to 21. 

Education is a key factor in positive health outcomes, Brown said. And although 89% of Oswego County has at least a high school degree, only 20.8% of residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher. 

“We do see greater longevity with people who have advanced education,” Brown said. “There’s kind of a ripple effect. With more education, you tend to have higher salaries; you tend to have more prestigious kinds of jobs [that are] less likely to be physically demanding.”

Brown added that “with higher education [and] with higher incomes, you tend to get better access to healthcare, better knowledge of things like nutrition, [and] better understanding of lifestyle factors, not only things like not smoking… but also when to go to the doctor.” 

Oldenburg said that the health department watches the trends of health outcomes and factors like the ones highlighted in the CHR&R report and Oswego County is often in the lower third of counties in the state. She also said the health department has many programs and services to combat these problems. 

The health department has chronic disease and diabetes self-management programs, fall prevention classes and conducts vaping and mental health education programs in local middle and high schools. 

The health department also distributes Narcan (Naloxone), a drug used to treat overdoses and fentanyl test strips and provides training and education to help combat overdoses. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these resources were unavailable. But now the health department can “reintroduce the community to a lot of these programs and services,” Oldenburg said. “Coming out of COVID, it’s a good time for us, the health department, to reintroduce ourselves and the services we do provide to our county residents.”

More information about the Oswego County Health Department’s services can be found on its website at https://health.oswegocounty.com/ or by calling 315-349-3545. 

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