How Michigan Ranks on 63 Key Health Measures

DETROIT, MI — Michigan fell below the middle of the pack in the latest America’s health Rankings report — a collection of more than 60 key measures that help determine a state's overall health. Measures include health issues like diabetes and cholesterol rates, environmental conditions like air pollution and water quality, and social factors like graduation rates and unemployment.

Overall, Michigan ranked 34th among the 50 states with a composite score of -0.251.

Hawaii is considered the healthiest state, followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont. The state at the bottom of the list was Mississippi at 50.

America's Health Rankings is the longest-running annual assessment of the nation's health based on state results, according to the report's sponsors at the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association.

Data used to determine the rankings comes from the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Census Bureau, the American Medical Association and more. See the complete report at American Health Rankings online.

Here are Michigan’s rankings on 63 key measures included in the report:

• Air pollution: 29
• Behaviors: 43
• Binge drinking: 41
• Cancer deaths: 37
• Cardiovascular deaths: 42
• Children in poverty: 38
• Chlamydia: 27
• Cholesterol check: 17
• Chronic drinking: 39
• Clinical care: 25
• Colorectal cancer screening: 9
• Community & environment: 29
• Dental visits (annual): 15
• Dentists: 17
• Diabetes: 37
• Disparity in health status: 18
• Drug deaths: 31
• Excessive drinking: 41
• Frequent mental distress: 35
• Frequent physical distress: 35
• Fruits: 24
• Heart attack: 33
• Heart disease: 35
• High blood pressure: 33
• High cholesterol: 39
• High health status: 38
• High school graduation: 36
• Immunization HPV female: 15
• Immunization HPV male: 23
• Immunization Meningococcal: 3
• Immunization TDAP: 48
• Immunizations — adolescents: 31
• Immunizations — children: 44
• Income disparity: 27
• Infant mortality: 38
• Infectious diseases: 22
• Injury deaths: 18
• Insufficient sleep: 42
• Lack of health insurance:10
• Low birth weights: 34
• Median household income: 30
• Obesity: 35
• Occupational fatalities: 16
• Personal income per capita: 33
• Pertussis: 37
• Physical inactivity: 24
• Policy: 24
• Poor mental health days: 30
• Poor physical health days: 34
• Premature death: 33
• Preventable hospitalizations: 39
• Primary health physicians: 6
• Public health funding: 38
• Salmonella: 8
• Seat belt use: 12
• Smoking: 40
• Stroke: 34
• Suicide: 18
• Underemployment rate: 39
• Unemployment rate (annual): 29
• Vegetables 31
• Violent crime: 36
• Water fluoridation: 13

National Cause for Concern

Noting health gains in other categories, report authors are concerned about rising rates in some key areas.
For the first time, the report found the cardiovascular death rate has increased in the past year, from 250.8 to 251.7 deaths per 100,000. Drug deaths increased by 4 percent in the past year, and the premature death rate increased for the second year in a row.

Since the rankings were first released in 1990, the prevalence of obesity among adults has increased by 157 percent, according to report authors.

“We have made important strides across the country against public health challenges; however, we are at a crossroads between a healthier future as a nation and a future in which troubling public health measurements become increasingly common,” said Dr. Reed Tuckson, external senior medical adviser to United Health Foundation. “This data provides a roadmap for states, local communities and the public health sector to work together to get ahead of the challenges coming.”

Written by Greg Hambrick (Patch National Staff)

Image via Shutterstock