National health rankings put South Carolina 48th

National health rankings put South Carolina 48th

The newest edition of America's Health: State Health Rankings shows Minnesota and New Hampshire tied for the top of the list of healthiest states. Utah is number three, followed by Vermont and Massachusetts. Mississippi is 50th as the least healthy state, while Louisiana is 49th. Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina complete the bottom five states.

South Carolina is 48th this year, unchanged from 2002. It is in the top 25 states for two measures: the rate of cancer deaths and the rate of uninsured population. Among the major challenges are a low high school graduation rate, a high rate of motor vehicle deaths, and a high premature death rate. Also, South Carolina has health disparities within the state as illustrated by differences in access to adequate prenatal care. Overall, South Carolina ranks poorly in both the combined measures of risk factors and outcomes (48th and 45th respectively), indicating that the state is unlikely to change its relative healthiness in the near future.

The 2003 Edition of America’s Health is the 14th such report released by the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention. States receive their ranking based on statistics related to infant mortality, infectious disease, smoking prevalence, children in poverty, violent crime and health insurance coverage. The report strives to balance the good and bad news from each state, noting their public health successes as well as failures.
Readers can click on the interactive Web version to get state-by-state snapshots and historical perspectives reaching back to 1990. Information on occupational fatalities, health disparities within states and traits shared by healthy communities are also included. To read the report, go to www.unitedhealthfoundation.org/shr2003/index.html.