These States Are The Most Unhealthy

December 17, 2019

Here at Diet.st, we keep things upbeat and try to help our readers lead healthier, more active lifestyles that will enable them to improve their quality of life and become happier. Today, however, we will be doing something different, with a more informative article that will, hopefully, spur some analysis and debate among the people. Namely, we will be looking at how each state fares in the latest official health report.

More precisely, we will be looking at the results reviewed and organized by 24/7 Wall St. The results they worked with were obtained by a report done by the United Health Foundation, called the 2015 America’s Health Rankings. This document looked at healthy behaviors, health policies, presence of diseases, quality of healthcare and percentage of preventable deaths in different states. These were just some of the factors 24/7 Wall St. took into consideration when ranking the 50 states.

So, what are the results?

Well, Hawaii ranks first according to their ranking. The state has the second lowest percentage of obese people with 22.1 percent. They also have the 3^rd lowest number of cardiovascular deaths and second highest percentage of people with health insurance (92 percent). They also have the lowest incidence of preventable hospitalization in the country.

Vermont came in at #2, mostly thanks to being 3^rd in percentage of residents with health insurance (93.9 percent) and the third highest number of primary care physicians per 100,000 people. Vermonters have also been found to eat healthier than the vast majority of the country.

Massachusetts rounds off the Top 3 healthiest states in the U.S. thanks to having the third least obese population with 23.3 percent, the highest percentage of people with health insurance at 96.5 percent and the fourth lowest number of cardiovascular deaths per 100,000 people. Minnesota is at number 4 and New Hampshire at No.5.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Louisiana, with the 4^th highest percentage of obese residents and 5^th highest number of cardiovascular deaths per 100,000 people. 30 percent of Louisiana residents do not exercise and almost 25 percent of residents are smokers. The state also struggles with the problem of low birthweight. Mississippi is the second least healthy state in the country thanks to a very low number of physicians and the fact that it ranks first in number of cardiovascular deaths in the country. Arkansas is the fattest state, also struggling with a high incidence of cardiovascular deaths. It is the third least healthy state in the country.