Report: Minnesota Is Healthiest State
By PATRICK CONDON
.c The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota is the nation's healthiest state, while Louisiana
is the least healthy, a ranking it has held for 14 of the last 15 years of a
national survey, officials said.
The annual report sponsored by the United Health Foundation weighs such factors
as health insurance coverage, heart disease rates, total and infant mortality
rates, the rate of motor vehicle deaths, high school graduation rates, childhood
poverty, and public health spending.
``To rank well, you have to demonstrate success across the board,'' said Dr.
Reed Tuckson, an official with the St. Paul-based United Health Foundation.
Since the rankings began in 1990, Minnesota has finished first nine out of 15
times, and never sunk lower than No. 2. Last year, it tied for first with New
Hampshire.
This year New Hampshire came in second and Vermont third. Finishing at the
bottom were Tennessee, Mississippi and in last place, Louisiana.
The nation's health showed improvement in the 1990s, with better public health
spending and public education, and decreases in smoking, cardiovascular deaths
and violent crime. But there's been little improvement nationwide since 2000 -
primarily because of the spike in obesity rates, Tucker said.
Since 1990, the number of obese adults has almost doubled, to 22 percent.
The United Health Foundation is a nonprofit foundation established by
UnitedHealth Group, the Minneapolis-based insurance company, to support public
health and the work of doctors and other health providers around the country.
The group undertakes the yearly study as a joint effort with the American Public
Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention.
On the Net:
United Health Foundation:
http://www.unitedhealthfoundation.org