Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places, Steady Suicide

The American Public Health Association (NPHA) has released it’s annual America’s Health Rankings for 2008.

The South Carolina data is here, but following are the main points [emphasis added]:

Ranking: South Carolina is 48th this year; it was 42nd in 2007.

Strengths: Strengths include high immunization coverage with 81.1 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations, a low prevalence of binge drinking at 13.7 percent of the population and moderate public health funding at $81 per person.

Challenges: Challenges include a low high school graduation rate with 60.1 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years, a high violent crime rate at 788 offenses per 100,000 population, a high prevalence of obesity at 29.0 percent of the population, a high infant mortality rate at 8.6 deaths per 1,000 live births and a high premature death rate with 9,559 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population.

South Carolina ranks lower for health determinants than for health outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time as was the case this year.

Significant Changes:

• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 15.6 percent to 21.0 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past five years, the rate of uninsured population increased from 11.9 percent to 16.2 percent.
• Since 1990, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease decreased from 458.9 to 316.1deaths per 100,000 population.
• Since 1990, the infant mortality rate decreased from 13.0 to 8.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Health Disparities: In South Carolina, cardiovascular death rates vary by race, with all races experiencing 316.1 deaths per 100,000 population in contrast to blacks who experience 398.6 deaths per 100,000 population. Access to health care varies significantly by race and ethnicity in the state; 42.0 percent of Hispanics lack health insurance compared to 16.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

The state of South Carolina dropped six places from last year.  Mississippi and Louisiana are keeping it from the bottom.

It seems the Palmetto State is a bunch of poor, fat, violent, uninsured dropouts.  And though far too many babies are dying, at least it’s not as many as it used to be.

Government can do only so much about these things (though I’d bet it’s not doing enough).  Most of these problems are due to personal behaviors that the population has to handle.

Pass the ribs.