How Colorado Ranks For Women And Children’s Health

A new report on the health of women and children in the United States finds an alarming increase in the teen suicide rate and says that compared to other high-income countries, women in our country have the highest maternal mortality rate.

Colorado ranked 10th among the healthiest states for women and children. While our state has a low neonatal mortality rate and high food security, our teen suicide rate has increased by 58 percent over the past three years, according to the report. Colorado also has a high prevalence of excessive drinking among women.

The findings come in a report released this month from the United Health Foundation. According to the report, the teen suicide rate in the United States has increased 25 percent since 2016. The child mortality rate has also increased since 2016, which the report called “concerning” after the declines seen in the rate since 1980.

Finally, the report says that drug deaths in women between the ages of 15-44 has increased 36 percent since 2016, fueled in large part by the opioid crisis that has killed thousands of Americans.

The report noted that there were striking disparities across race, gender and other factors when it came to health outcomes.

Males had a higher rate of both child mortality and teen suicide than females. And when it came to maternal mortality, black women as well as American Indian and Native Alaskan women had a higher maternal mortality rate than women from other races and ethnicities, the report says.

Another key finding of the report was an increase in excessive drinking among women between the ages of 18-44, and women with a college degree had a higher rate of excessive drinking than previously.

However, there were encouraging markers in the report as well, including a 22 percent decline in the teen birth rate since 2016. The number of women who smoke or use tobacco also decreased and the report found that more women were getting the flu shot compared to 2016.

According to the report, the five healthiest states for women are all in the northeast while four of the five states that ranked at the very bottom were in the southern United States. The report noted the effects of the community and environment when it came to long-term health. One of those factors was whether a household is in an area with a “high level of concentrated disadvantage,” such as having a higher percentage of people who were unemployed or living in poverty.

For example, in Mississippi, the state at the very bottom of the rankings, the percentage of households living in such an area was 17 times higher than in Vermont, which ranked no.4 on the list.

Here’s a breakdown of how Colorado performed:

Strengths:
• Low prevalence of food insecurity
• Low neonatal mortality rate
• High prevalence of neighborhood
amenities

Challenges:
• High prevalence of excessive drinking
among women
• High cost of infant child care
• High teen suicide rate

Highlights:
• In the past year, HPV immunization
among males ages 13-17 increased 24%
from 44.0% to 54.4%
• In the past year, the percentage of
infants exclusively breastfed for six
months decreased 37% from 35.3%
to 22.4%
• In the past three years, dedicated health
care provider among women ages 18-44
decreased 6% from 74.5% to 69.8%
• In the past three years, teen suicide
increased 58% from 12.9 to 20.4 deaths
per 100,000 adolescents ages 15-19
• In the past three years, smoking among
women ages 18-44 decreased 20% from
18.4% to 14.7%
• In the past three years, tobacco use
among youth ages 12-17 decreased 47%
from 8.9% to 4.7%

Read the full United Health Foundation report.