Ohio County is the 77th healthiest county of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Around 57 percent of the county is overweight, 29 percent are obese, 28 percent smoke, and only 17 percent get the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in their diet. (Kentucky Health Facts)
What does this all mean? Ohio County needs to get healthier.
Beginning Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, the Ohio County Monitor will launch a new program initiative we’re calling OC Healthy.
OC Healthy is a year-long series/program of videos, stories, and information made available to OC Monitor subscribers to not only educate on health issues affecting our community, but to aid in people actually getting healthier.
We are partnering with Tiffany Calvert, family consumer sciences agent with the Cooperative Extension office, and Angie Hudnall, registered nurse and health improvement specialist with Perdue Farms, who will be leading the program. The Ohio County Health Coalition, the Ohio County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy, and other organizations will also be involved.
The basis for the program is the Center for Disease Control’s Prevent T2 diabetes prevention program curriculum. While the curriculum for the program is available free to the public, the actual program is usually led by a facilitator.
OC Healthy will provide videos featuring Tiffany and Angie facilitating the year-long program as subscribers work their way through it.
The CDC estimates 1-in-3 people in this country are pre-diabetic, which means their A1C level is 5.6 or higher. The A1C tests the plasma glucose concentration in a person’s blood over a three-month average.
Around 70 percent of people who are considered pre-diabetic develop diabetes.
While the program’s focus is on preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes through weight loss, getting healthier and being healthy is its focus which can apply to just about everyone.
OC Healthy is hoping to take things a step further with this program by incorporating supplemental videos and information including recipes, smoking cessation, places to get exercise and be active locally, health information and statistics concerning Ohio County, and more.
We will also be setting up a closed Facebook group subscribers can request to join where Tiffany, Angie, and others involved will be available to answer questions anyone may have. Members of the group can have discussions, share ideas of what is working for them, and encourage one another through the program.
As mentioned before, this program is open to all current and new subscribers of the Ohio County Monitor and the program can be used at your own pace so subscribers can come in at any point even if they miss the first week, month, or six months.
Others offering this program charge anywhere from $99 to $150. If recommended by a doctor, Medicare and Medicaid can pay up to $450 for those who facilitate this program and bill the participants.
Not only will you be able to get all your Ohio County news on OCMonitor.com, but you can also get this entire OC Healthy program with all the supplemental recipe and information videos for $5 month or $48 per year.
We hope this is something the community will appreciate and take part in to help Ohio County get healthy.