Montgomery County Named Healthiest Place for Women

Self magazine rates Montgomery County No.1 for women's health

By WES MORRISON

Updated 7:15 PM EST, Mon, Dec 1, 2008

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Self magazine has ranked Montgomery County as the healthiest place for women out of 100 of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation.

The magazine said it analyzed information in more than 50 categories, including death and disease rates, environmental indicators, community resources, and lifestyle habits. The magazine defined the area of Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick as having low rates of smoking, obesity, cancer, depression and heart disease among women.

The magazine also gave the area high marks for access to more doctors per capita, the number of parks and trails, access to Metrorail and a low unemployment rate.

Self magazine gave the area high marks for the following:

Top scores for scarcity of toxic sites and prevalence of green buildings
Highest rates of ob/gyns and internists per capita
The list's lowest unemployment rate

The survey's negatives associated with the area include:

One of the list's longest average daily commutes, at almost 72 minutes round trip
Above-average suicide rate
15 fewer days of sunshine than average

Three female Montgomery County Council members -- Valerie Ervin, Nancy Flloreen and Duchy Trachtenberg -- said they were very pleased to have the rating.

"There is a direct link between good health, including good preventive health, and overall quality of life," Trachtenberg said. "Self magazine's ranking of this area as the No.1 healthiest urban area in the U.S. is a reflection of the investment we have made in social services, programs targeted toward women's health and quality, accessible medical care."

The Top 10: