William Atkins
Sunday, 07 December 2008 22:11
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 2
According to America’s Health Rankings, in 2008, Vermont is the healthiest of the fifty states of the United States of America. It has been ranked number one for two straight years. Louisiana is at the other end of the health spectrum.
Health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as
“a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
America’s Health Rankings is brought to the public by United Health Foundation (
UHF), American Public Health Association (
APHA), and Partnership for Prevention (
Prevent).
Vermont is ranked high with regards to a good rate of high school graduations, low violent crime rate, low percentage of children in poverty, high per capita public health funding, ready access to primary care, low geographic disparity of mortality rates within the state, and a low premature death rate.
Hawaii is ranked second, with New Hampshire number three, and Minnesota and Utah are fourth and fifth, respectively.
Louisiana is the least healthy state, with Mississippi next-to-last, at 49th.
Louisiana ranks in the bottom five states on ten of the 22 measures including a high prevalence of obesity, high percentage of children in poverty, high rate of uninsured population, high incidence of infectious disease, low rate of high school graduation, and many preventable hospitalizations.
Page two contains where you can read the "America's Health Rankings 2008," and the listing of the health rankings for the fifty U.S. states.
