New National Ranking: How Healthy Is Rhode Island?

Friday, December 09, 2011

GoLocal Health Team

Rhode Island has maintained a top 10 healthiest status in the United States, based on the latest assessment released by the United Health Foundation.

The 2011 America's Health Rankings, a collaboration between United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, uses numerous health measures to compile a comprehensive perspective on the nation's health issues, state by state.

This is the second year in a row that Rhode Island has ranked #10--certainly an achievement overall, but behind every other New England state. The #1 ranking went to Vermont again this year, and the #2 spot was taken over by New Hampshire, which moved up from #3 in 2010. Connecticut took the #3 slot and Massachusetts #4. Maine held on to its #8 ranking again to fill out the New England region.

How the rankings work

The study looks at four groups of health determinants that can be affected: behaviors, community and environment, public and health policies, and clinical care. The rankings combine individual measures of each of these determinants with resultant health outcomes into one comprehensive view of a state's overall health. Some of these factors include smoking, obesity, binge drinking, high school graduation rates, children in poverty, access to care and incidence of preventable disease.

Rhode Island: A snapshot at #10

Holding steady at #10 for the fourth year in the row, Rhode Island ranked #9 for determinants, but #17 for outcomes. On several core measures, here's how the state did.

Smoking: #15. The percentage of the population over 18 who smoke tobacco products regularly.

Diabetes: #17. The percentage of adults who have told by a health professional that they have diabetes, excluding pre-diabetes and gestational diabetes.

Obesity: #18. The percentage of the adult population estimated to be obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) or 30.0 or greater.

Strengths and challenges

The state received credit for three of its greatest strengths:

High immunization coverage
How rate of uninsured population
Ready availability of primary care physicians

On the other hand, the report highlighted three central challenges from the data:

High prevalence of binge drinking
High percentage of children in poverty
High rate of preventable hospitalization

Changes in the landscape

The new report addressed several highlights of change from 2010 to 2011, despite the state's unchanged ranking at #10.

The rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 74.1 to 70.0 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
Diabetes increased from 7.0 percent to 7.8 percent of adults. Now 65,000 Rhode Island adults have diabetes.
The percentage of children in poverty decreased from 22.2 percent to 20.4 percent of persons under age 18.

Two other highlights addressed the past decade:

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.

Where RI fared best

Rhode Island's highest national ranking in 2011 was at #2 for Cholesterol Check (the percentage of adults who have had their blood cholesterol checked within the last five years). RI ranked #4 for Immunization Coverage (an average of the percentage of children ages 19 to 35 months who've received DTP, Poliovirus, MCV and HepB vaccines). We also ranked #4 for our high number of Primary Care Physicians per 100,000 population. We ranked #5 nationally for Dental Visits, or the percentage of adults who have visited the dentist or dental clinic within the past five years for any reason.

For Rhode Island's full data, go here.

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