This article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on 12/8/2010, reported by Karen Herzog.
National survey puts state at No. 18, down seven places from 2009 report
Wisconsin is losing ground in national health rankings, dropping from 11th place overall in 2009 to 18th place in 2010, according to a long-running annual report on national health released Tuesday.
The state ranked seventh when the annual rankings began in 1990.
One reason may be that Wisconsin has the highest prevalence of binge drinking in the nation, just ahead of North Dakota and Minnesota, with an estimated 23.2% of the population older than 18 drinking excessively in the last 30 days. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks for a male and four for a female in one sitting.
The state has held that ranking for the past three years, since the ranking was added as a measure to the America's Health Rankings report.
Another reason why the state isn't gaining in its efforts to improve overall health, public health officials said Tuesday, is that Wisconsin also ranks near the bottom - 48th - for public health funding.
The state ranked last in 2009, spending $35.43 per capita on public health programs to monitor and improve population health. The state now spends $39.57 per capita.
The top-spending state, Hawaii, spends $235.48 per capita on public health programs and ranks fifth for overall health.
"Without adequate investment in our public health system, it's going to be very difficult for us to address the root causes of public health issues," said Bridget Booske, a senior scientist with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in Madison.
Ron Cisler, director of the Center for Urban Population Health in Milwaukee, said: "I think the fact we don't have state funding to provide broad-based information and prevention efforts in our communities makes having an impact tough."
America's Health Rankings is jointly published by the not-for-profit United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention.
It's the longest-running report of its kind, analyzing national health on a state-by-state basis using an array of measures, such as the prevalence of obesity, children living in poverty and infant mortality.
The report evaluates health, environmental and socioeconomic data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Medical Association, U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau.
Vermont ranked at the top among the healthiest states. Mississippi ranked last.
Wisconsin did well in the rankings for its rate of high school graduation (88.5%); its low rate of uninsured residents (9.6%); immunization coverage for children (93.5% of children ages 19 to 35 months); and few "poor mental health days" (2.8 days) per month.
In the report, the higher prevalence of a health risk causes a state to rank lower in a specific category. They include:
Obesity: In the past year, the prevalence of obesity increased from 26% to 29.2% of the state's population.
The prevalence of obesity was 23.2% five years ago. The state ranking dropped from 23rd in 2009 to 34th in 2010.
"Across the nation, obesity rates are increasing, but they must be increasing at a more rapid rate in Wisconsin because that's quite a drop in ranking from 23rd to 34th," Booske said.
"There are so many factors that go into health: poverty, crime that prevents people from feeling safe to get out and exercise, access to healthy food. They all contribute to obesity, which contributes to people dying younger than they have to," said Booske.
Diabetes: Wisconsin dropped from 14th place in 2009 to 22nd place in 2010, with 8.2% of the adult population now diagnosed with diabetes, up from 7.2% in 2009.
The state ranked sixth in 2008.
Children living in poverty: The state dropped from eighth nationwide in 2009, when an estimated 13% of its children lived in poverty, to 14th place in 2010, with 15.5% of children living in poverty.
"That's not a good direction for us to be going," Booske said. "Over the course of one year, 3% is a significant increase. What happens in childhood can have long-term effects."
Infant mortality: The state ranking improved from 23rd to 19th, though the rate stayed about the same - 6.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2010 and 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2009.
The infant mortality rate is much higher in Milwaukee - 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to a different report released recently, called the Milwaukee Health Report 2010.
Smoking: In the past 10 years, the prevalence of smoking in Wisconsin decreased from 23.7% to 18.7% of the population.
Cardiovascular disease:Since 1990, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease decreased from 389.2 to 258.3 deaths per 100,000 population.
To read the America's Health Rankings report for Wisconsin,
click here.
For a report that drills down health statistics to counties within states, check out The County Health Rankings report at countyhealthrankings.org. That report is collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
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