| By Bill Santamour | December 13, 2011 |
| We can learn a lot by knowing how states rate on health status | |
I don't know about you, but all those surveys that rank places as best this or worst that according to some ersatz criteria really bug me. Nine times out of 10 when I hear a particular community is rated as the best place to work or to retire or to raise llamas or to eat trendy food or to never feel like you ought to jump off the nearest cliff, there's no doubt in my mind that the only people surveyed were college-educated, heterosexual professionals of European-descent with more disposable income and more time on their hands than the average working stiff.
That said, the United Health Foundation has for 22 years produced an annual ranking of states based on solid data that is valuable in understanding how the nation and each state measure up when it comes to health status. America's Health Rankings takes into consideration a very broad range of factors that impact health and health care ? everything from insurance coverage to access to care, from crime to education.
This year's top-ranked state is Vermont, the fifth consecutive year it has been No. 1. It was followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut, Hawaii and Massachusetts. Mississippi is ranked as the least healthy state, Louisiana is 49th, and Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama round out the bottom five.
"Vermont ascended from 20th in 1990 and 1991 to the top position with sustained improvement in the last decade," the report says. It ranks in the top 10 "for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low rate of infectious disease, a high usage of prenatal care, high per capita public health funding, a low rate of uninsured population and ready availability of primary care physicians."
For the nation as a whole, the report provides five key findings:
- Obesity has increased from 11.6 percent of the adult population in the 1990 edition to 27.5 percent in the 2011 edition.
- Smoking decreased from 17.9 percent last year to 17.3 percent in 2011. But tobacco use is still estimated to be responsible for one out of five deaths annually ? approximately 443,000 deaths per year.
- The number of children living in poverty has increased for the last five years and is now at 21.5 percent. Those kids often face challenges when it comes to access to care and availability of healthful foods.
- Lack of health insurance coverage grew from 16.0 percent in 2010 to 16.2 percent in 2011.
- Diabetes is surging; 8.7 percent of American adults have been told by a physician that they have the disease. The CDC estimates that by 2050, as many as one in three Americans will have diabetes.
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This ranking ?and even the more suspect ones ?can serve a useful purpose by drawing attention to lifestyle, policy and environmental issues that affect Americans' health. They might even prompt civic leaders, politicians, health care professionals and the public to take action to improve matters ? though, as Lexington, Ky., leaders demonstrated, it never hurts to have a sense of humor.
When it was rated America's least active city by Men's Health magazine, Lexington held a Sedentary Parade to celebrate. Members of the March Madness Marching Band, some dressed in pajamas, pretended to doze off in the street. The mayor rode a couch on an electric cart, propping his feet up on a coffee table. But then, when the parade was over, 70 organizations sponsored a healthy living fair, demonstrating soccer, yoga, dance and other fitness activities.
Bill Santamour is managing editor of Hospitals & Health Networks. Follow our tweets at www.twitter.com/hhnmag.
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.
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Source: http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag/HHNDaily/HHNDailyDisplay.dhtml?id=6810003506
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