04.04.12 If it seems there's a health club every few blocks on the north shore, there's a reason. According to a study, St. Tammany -- where recreation programs thrive, walking trails are always popular and fast-food restaurants aren't always easy to find -- is the healthiest parish in the state. By contrast, Orleans Parish was rated 60th-healthiest of Louisiana's 64 parishes in findings released Tuesday by The County Health Rankings.

Four categories were used to determine the rankings, including health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. St. Tammany ranked first in three of the four categories, and it ranked seventh in clinical care. The rankings also accounted for how many fast food restaurants are in a parish and levels of physical inactivity among residents.

Social and economic factors played the largest part in the study, in which St. Tammany ranked first, and Orleans ranked 52nd.