As has been revealed in a report released on Tuesday by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Marengo County has been ranked as the 10-least healthy county across the state of Alabama.

The report has emerged as the first to rank the overall health of the counties of all the 50 American states, by utilizing a standard formula which measures how healthy people are and how long they tend to live.

"I think that fast food is one of the major problems. People live in a fast world now, and people want their food immediately. They eat the wrong things, and they get in the habit of eating the wrong things. They don’t exercise and they don’t plan ahead for what they’re going to eat. If they would plan ahead, they would eat a lot healthier. Good health habits snowball; so do bad health habits", said Betsy Adams, Director of the Wellness Center at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital.

Perry County was ranked as the least healthy Alabama County, with 6 Black Belt counties taking up places among the bottom 10.

Other counties in the bottom 10 include Walker, which is at the third position, Lowndes, at fourth, and Bullock and Fayette, at positions five and nine, respectively.