Today, we at United Health Foundation are pleased to release the 22nd Edition of America’s Health Rankings®: A Call to Action for Individuals and Their Communities. Published along with our partners at the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, America’s Health Rankings provides the longest-running state-by-state analysis of our country’s health and the factors that affect it.
Disappointingly, our nation’s health is stagnating. Today’s report finds that troubling increases in obesity, diabetes, and children in poverty are offsetting modest improvements in smoking cessation, preventable hospitalizations, and cardiovascular deaths. What this means is that the overall health of the nation did not improve at all between 2010 and 2011—a decline from the 0.5% average annual rate of improvement between 2000 and 2010 and the 1.6% average annual rate of improvement seen in the 1990s. A compelling example of this stagnation is smoking and obesity: The Rankings found that, for every person who quit smoking in 2011, somebody became obese.
The result is millions more individuals with preventable illnesses, a veritable tsunami of chronic disease washing into an already overburdened health care system. With chronic disease affecting 130 million Americans and accounting for nearly 75% of these costs, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to act more urgently and creatively to confront these issues.
When it comes to challenges of this magnitude, it’s important to realize that “we’re all in this together.” Government leadership is essential, but government cannot do it alone. The private sector, philanthropy and community-based organizations all need to join in a data-driven process to determine priorities and then recruit the broad range of assets necessary to address these priorities.
Individuals clearly play a role too. The subtitle of this report remains A Call to Action for Individuals and Their Communities. These are not just words but an urgent plea for comprehensive, innovative and sustained engagement. Whether it’s making a personal change like quitting smoking or exercising; supporting community initiatives that create safe and healthy environments in which to live and work; or creating health enhancing policies or programs, the point is that too much is at stake to leave these issues unaddressed. Now is the time!
You can also find and follow America’s Health Rankings on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AmericasHealthRankings and Twitter at @AHR_Rankings. Let us all exchange ideas, share information and learn from each other as we work to turn the tide on the health challenges facing the nation.