More information at each link
10. Indiana
9. Tennessee
8. South Carolina
7. Oklahoma
6. Kentucky
5. West Virginia
4. Alabama
3. Louisiana
2. Arkansas
1. Mississippi
10. New Jersey
9. North Dakota
8. Colorado
7. Connecticut
6. Utah
5. New Hampshire
4. Massachusetts
3. Minnesota
2. Vermont
1. Hawaii
…
For least healthy, a large percentage of blacks (especially poor blacks) in the South stands out.
Indiana seems a bit surprising. Is there that much difference between Indiana and Minnesota?
I can practically hear Charlaine Harris saying “told ya!” A member of the Arkansas and Louisiana Chambers of Commerce she’s not.
West Virginia is also on that list. Do you find that interesting too?
Speaking as someone who has lived in the Midwest his entire life, and has visited both states often: heck, yes.
Just from a public health and public policy standpoint, Indiana often comes across as fairly backwards and undeveloped. Chicago residents frequently cross the border to buy cheap cigarettes (because Indiana taxes them far less), and the state just seems to be noticeably less enlightened on public health.
I think the correlation is between poor health and poorness in financial terms. WV doesn’t have poor blacks, but it does have a lot of poor whites. Indiana includes some poor suburbs of Chicago in Lake County, some rust-belt cities in the north, and reaches south towards the true south on the other side of the Ohio River.
Indiana borders Kentucky, though. I live in KY and we have a lot of obesity and smoking. I promise you, there are plenty of unhealthy white folks on both sides of the river.
I think it’s likely a big factor.
Minnesota ranks 11th in per-capita income; Indiana ranks 37th.
Minnesota has a statewide system of parks that are used for some pretty strenuous activities. We get enough snow for cross country skiing and activities like hockey, curling, and broomball keep us active in the winter. Also, as said above, MN citizens and gov’t just seem to be more health aware.
I am not dissing Indiana folks when I say this. Believe it or not, I do think our colder winters help our health. We have a high number of winter activities simply because waiting a day or three for the weather to warm up is not an option. Our activities are designed with the cold in mind.
Minneapolis/St.Paul was one of the first areas to lose ALL of their Krispy Kreme shops in their decline. They also have no Dunkin Donuts. The only place to get donuts is a specialty bakery or grocery store or gas station. Some folks wanted Dunkin Donuts to open here but DD response was that market research showed their wasn’t enough demand.
May I go off-topic for a moment?
Why doesn’t the article describe or at least link to the metrics used? It takes four clicks to get to the metrics. Why do some many articles of this type not provide any useful information? This article is just a beauty pageant.
I would like to see a ranking of so-called “science” reporting.
If anyone is interested:
This page has links to the background information
And you can poke around in the data yourself
When I compare Minnesota and Indiana, the higher air pollution in Indiana and low inactivity (odd phrasing …) pops out.
Indiana, the “south” of the North.
Ah, Vermont. Where the weak, elderly, and unhealthy are killed off by the winters, leaving more maple syrup for the rest of us.
Minnesota was one of the first states to pass a clean air indoor act as well.
And for those of us who don’t like cold weather sports - when the weather is warm - we often want to be outside in it. When you will only brave outside six months a year, you make the most of those six months - so there are six or eight month joggers, a lot of golfers who golf EVERY WEEKEND when they can, and people who walk - a lot - between April and October because you take the sunshine when you can.
People down south don’t get the great aerobic workout of shoveling snow for four months of the year.
I assume Hawaiians have to shovel away lots of volcano ash or something.
I approve of these off-topic remarks as I was just bitching about this sort of thing (very loudly and to myself) earlier this morning. I kept running across article after article about the Pope’s smackdown on greed and wealth inequality, which are now resurfacing everywhere after his being named Time’s Person of the Year, so I attempted to read it in his own words, and guess how far I got with that. It took me for-fucking-ever, but I finally found it, no thanks to any of the “news” sources I read. The worst is when an article links to another article about a report, as opposed to the report itself. Argh! God, if I didn’t love the internet so much, I would f-ing hate it.
Anyway, yeah, so I looked up CA and IL just for kicks, and I’m not surprised that CA has low obesity and low smoking rates (CA has nearly made smoking a jailable offense) and that IL scores high on binge drinking. You know, there really is nothing else to do in the Midwest.
More than 3 out of 10 people in South Carolina don’t graduate from HIGH SCHOOL in four years!
I just post this stuff for the casual amusement value. I don’t think anyone actually cares about it. The thing that got my attention was the fact that NJ was on the healthy list. But if morbidity and mortality statistics are what you’re into, that’s cool. I would suggest checking out the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). That’s probably where a lot of the information comes from anyway.
I think you are probably wrong that no one cares. As a Minnesotan, we take a great deal of pride in our lack of couch potatoness (a contributor to this). Another thing that stands out when I look at the data - we have a lot of physicians - duh, when you are home to Mayo, as well as other good hospital systems, you don’t have a problem bringing in adequate doctors - and our medical infrastructure is another point of state pride.