At the same time that improvements were occurring in some categories since 1990, the prevalence of obesity almost doubled, from 12 percent to 23 percent. Those without health insurance rose from 13 percent to 16 percent. The percentage of ninth-graders who graduated from high school within four years fell from 73 percent to 68 percent.
Last year brought some bad news.
Jesse Ventura does push-ups for National Employee Health and Fitness Day in 2000, when he was governor of Minnesota, named the healthiest state.
(Jim Mone -- AP)
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State Health Rankings
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A Weekly Shot of News and Notes (The Washington Post, Nov 9, 2004)
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Bottomless Hunger (The Washington Post, Nov 2, 2004)
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Data Find a Taller, Fatter America Since 1960 (The Washington Post, Oct 28, 2004)
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A Weekly Shot of News and Notes (The Washington Post, Oct 26, 2004)
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Trainers for Kids? We're Serious. We Think (The Washington Post, Oct 26, 2004)
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Obesity prevalence increased from 22.1 to 22.8 percent of the population. The percentage of children in poverty rose from 16.3 to 17.6. In the smallest -- but possibly most significant -- change, infant mortality rose for the first time in 40 years, from 6.9 to 7 deaths in the first year of life for every 1,000 live births.
"Given the meaning of infant mortality as the definer of quality of a civilization, this statistic is worrisome," Tuckson said.
The United States is now 28th in the world in infant mortality. Hong Kong has the lowest rate (3.1), followed by Japan and Sweden (each at 3.4). Angola has the highest infant mortality rate of any country, variously estimated to be between 150 and 260, according to documents on the World Health Organization Web site.
The report reveals wide variations among states in many of the 18 measurements.
The percentage of children in poverty ranged from 7 percent in New Hampshire and 10 percent in Minnesota to 32 percent in the District and 27 percent in West Virginia, Arkansas and New Mexico. Maryland had 11 percent and Virginia 14 percent.
The high school graduation rate was 90 percent in New Jersey, 84 percent in North Dakota and 83 percent in Iowa, but only 54 percent in Georgia and 49 percent in South Carolina. In the District, it was 70; in Maryland and Virginia, 74.
Colorado and Hawaii each had 16 percent of the adult population qualifying as obese -- the lowest in the nation. Mississippi and Alabama had the highest, at 28 percent. For the District, the obesity prevalence was 20 percent; for Maryland and Virginia, it was 22 percent.
Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut had the safest drivers, with one or fewer deaths per 100 million miles driven. Montana had the highest motor vehicle death rate -- three times Vermont's -- with South Dakota and Mississippi close behind.
Massachusetts had the lowest rate of occupational fatalities -- three per 100,000 workers. Alaska's rate was five times higher.
There were similarly wide health disparities among ethnic groups within states.
In the District, for every 100,000 people, blacks lost 19,000 years of life because of death before age 75. For whites, this measure of "premature death" was 5,300 years.
Indians in North Dakota suffered 15,000 years of potential life lost compared with 5,800 years for that state's whites.
In New Mexico, Hispanics lost 8,300 years compared with 7,100 for whites, but in Virginia the relationship was reversed. Hispanics there lost 4,000 years of potential life before age 75 for every 100,000 people, compared with 6,400 for whites.
The full report, "America's Health: State Health Rankings," is available at www.unitedhealthfoundation.org.
