KET will show how annual county health rankings are stirring competition to improve health, community by community

The rankings are in quartiles, or fourths of the 120 counties

Kentuckians love the competition among their basketball and football teams. But what if that same spirit of competition was transferred to health? To help encourage such competition, and thus improve health county by county, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute produces county health rankings each year, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The next edition of KET's "Health Three60," Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, with Renee Shaw, looks at three communities that are taking those health statistics seriously and making positive changes. A health coalition drives change in Grant County, which moved from 89th to 60th in the rankings in three years. In Hardin County and some surrounding communities, a grassroots drive leads to a smoking ban. And new trails in Rockcastle County encourage healthy lifestyles, as well as economic development. The series is funded in part by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.