Jump to content

America's Health Rankings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.223.117.243 (talk) at 23:11, 15 November 2009 (start at wikification). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

America's Health Rankings is an annual report that measures the overall healthiness of the United States using a comprehensive set of related health determinants and outcomes. The report provides state-specific rankings from 1 to 50 across a variety of national health benchmarks. State rankings are determined by evaluating four factors: behaviors, the environment and the community in which people live, the decisions made by public and health policies and practices of the government and clinical care received.[1] America's Health Rankings is the result of a partnership between United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.[2]

Purpose

The purpose of America's Health Rankings is to stimulate action by individuals, communities, health care professionals, elected officials and employers to improve the health of the population of the United States.[1]

History

America's Health Rankings was first published in 1990 and ranked the relative healthiness of states populations based on 16 measures of health. As of 2009, 22 measures are used to evaluate a comprehensive profile of the overall health of each state.[1] America's Health Rankings is released in partnership with United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention.

Scientific Advisory Committee

In 2002, United Health Foundation, in concert with the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, commissioned the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health to undertake an ongoing review of America's Health Rankings. The Scientific Advisory Committee, currently led by Thomas Ricketts, Ph.D., M.P.H., was charged with conducting a thorough review of the current index and recommending improvements that would maintain the value of the comparative, longitudinal information; reflect the evolving role and science of public health; utilize new or improved measures of health as they become available and acceptable; and incorporate new methods as feasible.

In addition, the committee continues to work on issues concerning improved environmental health indicators, methods of expressing variability within the rankings, oral health indicators, mental health indicators, improved health disparities, improved cost measures, quality of care measures and international benchmarking.[1]

Components of Health

The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.[3]

This report looks at the four groups of health determinants that can be affected:

  1. Behaviors include everyday activities that affect personal health habits and practices individuals and families develop that have an effect on our personal health and our utilization of health resources. These behaviors are modifiable with effort by the individual supported by community, policy and clinical interventions.
  2. Community and environment reflects the reality that the daily conditions in which we live our lives have a great effect on achieving optimal individual health.
  3. Public and health policies are indicative of the availability of resources to encourage and maintain health and the extent that public and health programs reach into the general population.
  4. Clinical care reflects the quality, appropriateness and cost of the care we receive at doctors’ offices, clinics and hospitals.

Description of measures

The 22 measures that comprise 2009 America's Health Rankings are of two types of health determinants and health outcomes.[2] Health determinants represent those actions that can affect the future health of the population, whereas health outcomes represent the result of what has already occurred, either through death or missed days due to illness.

Behaviors

  • Prevalence of Smoking: Percentage of population over age 18 that smokes on a regular basis.
  • Prevalence of Binge Drinking: Percentage of population over age 18 that has consumed alcoholic beverages excessively in the last 30 days. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks for a male and four for a female in one setting.
  • Prevalence of Obesity: Percentage of the population estimated to be obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher.
  • High School Graduation: Percentage of incoming ninth graders who graduate in four years from a high school with a regular degree, as reported by NCES in compliance with the No Child Left Behind initiative.

Community & Environment

Public & Health Policies

  • Lack of Health Insurance: Percentage of the population that does not have health insurance privately, with their employers or through the government.
  • Public Health Funding: State funding dedicated to public health, as well as federal funding directed to states by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration, expressed on a per capita basis.
  • Immunization Coverage: Percentage of children ages 19 to 35 months who have received four or more doses of DPT, three or more doses of poliovirus vaccine, one or more doses of any measles-containing vaccine, three or more doses of HiB, and three or more doses of HepB vaccine.

Clinical Care

  • Prenatal Care: Percentage of pregnant women receiving adequate prenatal care, as defined by Kotelchuck’s Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization (APNCU) Index.
  • Primary Care Physicians: Number of primary care physicians (including general practice, family practice, OB-GYN, pediatrics and internal medicine) per 100,000 population.
  • Preventable Hospitalizations: Discharge rate among the Medicare population for diagnoses that are amenable to non-hospital based care.

Outcomes

  • Poor Mental Health Days: Number of days in the previous 30 days when a person indicates their activities are limited due to mental health difficulties.
  • Poor Physical Health Days: Number of days in the previous 30 days when a person indicates their activities are limited due to physical health difficulties.
  • Geographic Disparity: The variation among the overall mortality rates of the counties within a state. Equality among counties would be expressed by low variation.
  • Infant Mortality: Number of infant deaths (before age one) per 1,000 live births.
  • Cardiovascular Deaths: Number of deaths due to all cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease and strokes, per 100,000 populations.
  • Cancer Deaths: Number of deaths due to all causes of cancer per 100,000 population.
  • Premature Death: Number of years of potential life lost prior to age 75 per 100,000 population.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "America's Health Rankings 2008 Edition: A Call for Innovative Actions to Individuals and Their Communities", United Health Foundation, 2008.
  2. ^ a b "State Health Rankings and Other News" U.S. News & World Report, December 4, 2008.
  3. ^ "What is the WHO Definition of Health?" World Health Organization, 2008.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=America%27s_Health_Rankings&oldid=326061285"