Mega-Healthcare provider United Healthcare has released its annual report on America’s health. Once again Vermont takes the lead as “America’s Healthiest State” while Mississippi once again is the least healthy.
The report highlights continued decline in the number of tobacco users but warns against high increases in obesity and diabetes rates.
Visit http://www.americashealthrankings.org/ for the full report.
Interesting facts: My home state of Rhode Island ranked 10th in the list:
Strengths:
- High immunization coverage
- Low rate of uninsured population
- Ready availability of primary care physicians
Challenges:
- High prevalence of binge drinking
- High percentage of children in poverty
- High rate of preventable hospitalizations
Highlights:
- In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 74.1 to 70.0 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
- In the past year, diabetes increased from 7.0 percent to 7.8 percent of adults. Now 65,000 Rhode Island adults have diabetes.
- In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 22.2 percent to 20.4 percent of persons under age 18.
- In the past ten years, obesity increased from 17.1 percent to 26.0 percent of adults, with 215,000 obese adults in the state.
- While smoking decreased from 23.4 percent to 15.7 percent of adults in the last ten years, 130,000 adults still smoke in Rhode Island.
Health Disparities:
In Rhode Island, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 35.6 percent and Hispanics at 30.9 percent than non- Hispanic whites at 23.3 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 10.9 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 7.6 percent Hispanics.
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