America's Health Rankings 2019: Colorado Ranks In Top 10

Denver CO

06 December, 2019

2:41 PM

Description

The United Health Foundation recently released the 30th edition of its America's Health Rankings Annual Report, which represents the longest-running state-by-state analysis of the nation's health. It's good news for Colorado in 2019, as we finished 10th healthiest overall out of the 50 states. Here's more information on how our state ranked across the five model categories that determined the overall ranking. Behaviors: 0.288Community & Environment: 0.307Policy: 0.206Clinical Care: 0.188Health Outcomes: 0.850The overall ranking for Colorado went down two positions from the 2018 report. Our state's overall ranking has fluctuated throughout the past 30 years. 2010 Ranking: 132000 Ranking: 6 1990 Ranking: 10Colorado's Strengths:• Low prevalence of physical inactivity• Low percentage of children in poverty• Low prevalence of diabetes Challenges in Colorado:• High prevalence of excessive drinking• High prevalence of low birthweight• Large difference in health status by high school education Notable statistics from Colorado's report:• Since 2007, drug deaths increased 44 percent from 11.5 to 16.6 deaths per 100,000 population• In the past year, violent crime increased 8 percent from 368 to 397 offenses per 100,000 population• In the past three years, occupational fatalities decreased 5 percent from 3.9 to 3.7 deaths per 100,000 workers• In the past two years, mental health providers increased 14 percent from 313.5 to 356.4 per 100,000 population• In the past two years, disparity in healthstatus increased 12 percent from 33.7 percent to 37.6 percent• In the past year, frequent mental distress decreased 4 percent from 11.6 percent to 11.1 percent of adults Here are some other healthy highlights from the report for other states. Vermont ranked as the healthiest city in America for 2019, the researchers found, followed by Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut and Utah. At the other end of the rankings, Mississippi finished as the lowest-ranked state in the nation. The bottom five were rounded out by Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma. The report ranked all 50 states across 35 measures of health, such as e-cigarette use, housing problems and concentrated disadvantage. These measures were then filtered through the following five categories to help determine an overall ranking for each state: Behaviors Community & Environment Policy Clinical Care Health Outcomes The America's Health Rankings Annual Report used 19 data sources to determine the most accurate information for each state, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavior Risk Surveillance System and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and Current Population Survey. "The report provides a unique opportunity to track short- and long-term public health successes as well as identify current and emerging challenges at state and national levels," authors of the United Health Foundation wrote. "When reading the report, think beyond the rankings; every state, whether first or last, has strengths and challenges." The full report is available on Americashealthrankings.org.