The most and least healthy American states

[It Aint Necessarily So]

"The 2017 America’s Health Rankings, a study conducted by the United Health Foundation, based its findings for the healthiest states on a number of factors, including rates of smoking, obesity, infant mortality and infectious diseases – in addition to the availability of health care providers and levels of air pollution."

The healthiest states
1. Massachusetts
2. Hawaii
3. Vermont
4. Utah
5. Connecticut

The least healthy states
1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Arkansas
4. Alabama
5. West Virginia

source

What is the take-home message here?

 

[sun rise]

The "take-home" message to me is inherent in the categories the report outlines: Four categories of determinants are included in our model of health: Behaviors, Community & Environment, Policy and Clinical Care.

So when you have relatively poor people who don't have access to decent medical care due to poverty etc and who have unhealthy eating habits, the results are as indicated.

 

[Vee]

"The 2017 America’s Health Rankings, a study conducted by the United Health Foundation, based its findings for the healthiest states on a number of factors, including rates of smoking, obesity, infant mortality and infectious diseases – in addition to the availability of health care providers and levels of air pollution."

The healthiest states
1. Massachusetts
2. Hawaii
3. Vermont
4. Utah
5. Connecticut

The least healthy states
1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Arkansas
4. Alabama
5. West Virginia

source

What is the take-home message here?

Eat less fried chicken???

 

[BSM1]

Eat less fried chicken???

Or road kill...

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The "take-home" message to me is inherent in the categories the report outlines: Four categories of determinants are included in our model of health: Behaviors, Community & Environment, Policy and Clinical Care.

So when you have relatively poor people who don't have access to decent medical care due to poverty etc and who have unhealthy eating habits, the results are as indicated.

Any thoughts about why that clusters in the American South. Why should they be poorer or have worse dietary habits? I can't connect it to being more religious or more conservative, but apart from Utah with prevalent Mormon lifestyle values (no smoking), all of the other states are relatively liberal and irreligious.

 

[sun rise]

Any thoughts about why that clusters in the American South. Why should they be poorer or have worse dietary habits? I can't connect it to being more religious or more conservative, but apart from Utah with prevalent Mormon lifestyle values (no smoking), all of the other states are relatively liberal and irreligious.

To me it's a combination of poverty and lack of available health care which follows from poverty as well as no state support for health care. Also the unhealthy food preferences factors in.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

With how many people smoke around here, I'm surprised Indiana isn't also on the list. Diabetes and obesity are also common problems here.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

To me it's a combination of poverty and lack of available health care which follows from poverty as well as no state support for health care. Also the unhealthy food preferences factors in.

That probably has a lot to do with it. Southern cooking and soul food may be yummy, but just as equally bad for you given such diets often consist of truckloads of carbs, fats, sodium, and cholesterol.

 

[BSM1]

That probably has a lot to do with it. Southern cooking and soul food may be yummy, but just as equally bad for you given such diets often consist of truckloads of carbs, fats, sodium, and cholesterol.

I think you could say the same thing about many ethnic or cultural cuisine (e.g., Italian pasta dishes, or Eastern European meat based menus). The problem is not so much the quality of the food, but the quantity. A lot of these health problems come from being overweight and sedentary. In many of these southern states you see a lot of unemployment. This contributes to doing nothing but sitting around and eating. Many of us here thrive on "Southern cooking and soul food" with no more health problems than any other section of the country.

 

[Mindmaster]

With how many people smoke around here, I'm surprised Indiana isn't also on the list. Diabetes and obesity are also common problems here.

Diabetes can be dealt with by just going to a real food diet. Once you do that, you are no longer obese.

It's this high carb pre-packed food crap that is messing everyone up.

 

[ChristineM]

"The 2017 America’s Health Rankings, a study conducted by the United Health Foundation, based its findings for the healthiest states on a number of factors, including rates of smoking, obesity, infant mortality and infectious diseases – in addition to the availability of health care providers and levels of air pollution."

The healthiest states
1. Massachusetts
2. Hawaii
3. Vermont
4. Utah
5. Connecticut

The least healthy states
1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. Arkansas
4. Alabama
5. West Virginia

source

What is the take-home message here?

Not a state but the city of Huntington, West Virginia.

Top chef Jamie Oliver made it his mission to educate the city into healthy eating.

Oliver is something of a food campaigner, he has changed the British governments stance on meals in school's.

His mission in Huntington failed, the residents preferred obesity and fast food. Oliver like gave up his task in tears?

Jamie Oliver reduced to tears as US rejects healthy eating advice | Daily Mail Online

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Any thoughts about why that clusters in the American South. Why should they be poorer or have worse dietary habits? I can't connect it to being more religious or more conservative, but apart from Utah with prevalent Mormon lifestyle values (no smoking), all of the other states are relatively liberal and irreligious.

It's more nuanced than that. Aside from echoes of the civil war which are still present today, deep South basically put all their eggs in the basket of agriculture. And since higher learning wasn't necessary for harvesting crops, their schools didn't develop. This wouldn't have been a problem, the same thing was true in Texas, except a couple of major farming industries the South relied on, cotton and grains, became unsustainable without modernization as a national export, and the country moved on to literal greener pastures.
Texas with its cattle weren't hit as hard coupled with Texas big oil meant that they had the diversity and capitol to make their industries more upwardly mobile. And they put the most investment into their schools in the South.

Which is not to say their religious and right leaning policies don't effect things, they do. Lack of comprehensive sex education means more unwanted pregnancies and single mothers, making generational economic motility very hard. The South also has very low minimum wage and higher tax burden on the poor than middle and high income. But these compound a problem that had other contributing factors and creates a vicious cycle.

 

[Jesster]

I'm surprised New Mexico ranks as high as it does (still in the lower half though). I guess we do better in health than we do in education. Maybe it's the green chile.