Healthiest US States

http://www.morganquitno.com/hcrank07.htm

the five healthiest states for 2007:

1. vermont

2. minnesota

3. massachusetts

4. maine

5. new hampshire

honorable mention:

6. nebraska

7. iowa

8. utah

9. hawaii

10. kansas

negative (-) and positive indicators:

http://www.morganquitno.com/hc07fact.htm

1. births of low birthweight as a percent of all births (table 14) -

2. teenage birth rate (table 33) -

3. percent of mothers receiving late or no prenatal care (table 62) -

4. age-adjusted death rate (table 90) -

5. infant mortality rate (table 96) -

6. age-adjusted death rate by malignant neoplasms (table 156) -

7. age-adjusted death rate by suicide (table 180) -

8. average annual family coverage health insurance premium (table 237) -

9. percent of population not covered by health insurance (table 241) -

10. percent of children not covered by health insurance (table 245) -

11. estimated rate of new cancer cases (table 324) -

12. aids rate (table 352) -

13. sexually transmitted disease rate (table 386) -

14. percent of population lacking access to primary care (table 411) -

15. percent of adults who are binge drinkers (table 494) -

16. percent of adults who smoke (table 495) -

17. percent of adults obese (table 502) -

18. percent of adults who do not exercise (table 504) -

19. beds in community hospitals per 100,000 population (table 197) +

20. percent of children aged 19-35 months immunized (table 381) +

21. safety belt usage rate (table 513) +

methodology--the healthiest state designation is awarded based on 21 factors chosen from the year 2007 edition of our annual reference book, health care state rankings. these factors reflect access to health care providers, affordability of health care and a generally healthy population. all 21 factors are the same as last year. the 21 factors were divided into two groups: those that are “negative” for which a high ranking would be considered bad for a state, and those that are “positive” for which a high ranking would be considered good for a state. rates for each of the 21 factors were processed through a formula that measures how a state compares to the national average for a given category. the positive and negative nature of each factor was taken into account as part of the formula. once these computations were made, the factors then were weighted (factors were weighted equally.) these weighted scores were then added together to get a state’s final score (“sum” on the table above.) this way, states are assessed based on how they stack up against the national average. the end result is that the farther below the national average a state’s health ranking is, the lower (and less healthy) it ranks.