A study by fitness company Verbend that ranked all 50 states based on structural and environmental factors revealed that Hawaii is the healthiest state in the United States.
Factors included access to healthcare, air pollution and food prices, as well as how healthy residents felt and good habits related to nutrition and fitness.
While Hawaii topped the list, New England also did well, with New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts all ranking in the top five in the study.
At the other end of the spectrum, southern states fared poorly. Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia all finished in the bottom five.
“This study reveals how our environment, access to health care and personal choices work together to shape our overall health,” said Raj, a spokesperson for the study. Dr. Dasgupta said in a statement.
“As a medical professional, I find this data interesting as it may provide insights into improving public health strategies. [a] A more customized approach for different communities across the country. ”
The study found that the Northeast has an advantage in health care access, meaning a range of health services is available and public health funding is abundant.
In the Midwest, states scored lower overall, but residents rated themselves as being physically and mentally well; South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska all ranked lower. It is in the top five states for self-reported health status.
Meanwhile, Western states ranked higher for nutrition and less pollution, while Colorado and Utah scored high for fitness.
The states best suited for building a healthy lifestyle in this study were Hawaii, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Alaska, Maine, Minnesota, and Maryland.
The top five states all received high scores for low environmental pollution, including better air quality and less land and water pollution than other states.
Hawaii scored very well in nutrition, with high scores in access to health care and the lowest sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in the U.S., but it didn’t do as well in the fitness department. .
New Hampshire came in second place. Food is cheap and easily available there, with the average adult spending 9.9% of their income on food, much lower than the national average, and just 6.1% of the state was considered a food desert. .
A food desert is defined as an area where access to healthy food is difficult, perhaps because there are no stores selling fresh food nearby.
The 10 states with poor scores in the study were Nevada, Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma. The main reason was that access to medical care was more difficult in these states than in other states.
In Texas, for example, fewer people had health insurance than in other states, and access to mental health care was also more difficult than in other states.
In Mississippi, 29.8 percent of the state is classified as a food desert, and fewer residents reported being physically active in the past month than any other state.
Nevada fell to the bottom of the leaderboard, scoring poorly in every category, including environmental pollution, access to health care, public health spending, access to healthy food, and fitness.
To calculate state rankings, BarBend scores all 50 states in five categories, weighting each state’s final score so that half is due to structural factors and the other half is due to individual institutions. I did.
The created map is newsweek However, in this article, the represents the unweighted average of all five scores.
The five categories are: Healthcare and Health Access. Baseline health status. healthy environment. Healthy nutritional behavior. Healthy activity behavior.
BarBend used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Census, USA Facts, U.S. Health Rankings, Mental Health America, research journal Current Developments, Restaurant.org, and Google Trends.
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