Wisconsin experienced the greatest decline of any state in the 2013 America's Health Rankings released Wednesday, taking steps backward in several categories, including a 7.2% increase in the proportion of adults who are obese.
America's Dairyland dropped in the overall national rankings from No. 13 to No. 20 healthiest state.
In the past year, the prevalence of obesity here increased from 27.7% to 29.7% of adults. More than 1.3 million Wisconsin adults are now considered obese — defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher.
The prevalence of obesity ranges from 20.5% of the adult population in Colorado to 34.7% of the adult population in Louisiana. The national median is 27.6%. Only 15 states rank equal to or lower than Wisconsin in this category.
The annual state-by-state report — now in its 24th year of analyzing behaviors, public and health policies, community and environmental conditions, and clinical care data — is produced by the United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention. The report aims to provide a holistic view of the nation's health.
The good news for Wisconsin: A high rate of high school graduation, high immunization coverage among children and a low percentage of uninsured residents.
The state's challenges: High prevalence of binge drinking, high incidence of infectious diseases and low per capita public health funding.
Wisconsin actually scores better than average on infant mortality (ranked 20 of 50), high school graduation rates (ranked 2 of 50) and infant immunization (ranked 6 of 50).
Among the report's other highlights for Wisconsin:
■ Diabetes remains relatively low at 8.3% of the adult population, but more than 370,000 adults in the state have diabetes.
■ Fifty-one percent of adults ages 25 years and older with at least a high school education report their health is very good or excellent, compared with only 31% with less than a high school education. That's a disparity of 20 percentage points.
■ In the past year, the number of self-reported poor mental health days increased from 3.2 to 3.7 days in the last 30 days.
■ Immunization coverage among children increased from 70.9% to 75.2% of children ages 19 to 35 months, while immunization coverage among adolescents decreased from 70.1% to 67.2% of those ages 13 to 17 years.
■ In the past five years, the percentage of uninsured population increased from 8.5% to 10% of the population.
■ In the past 10 years, the rate of preventable hospitalizations dropped 16%, from 63.8 to 55 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
Hawaii ranks as the nation's healthiest state, and Mississippi is No. 50. The entire report is available at http://americashealthrankings.org/.
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