UnitedHealth Foundation, a non-profit organization for improving health care, recently released their annual report from America’s Health Rankings for 2008. UnitedHealth Foundation was founded by UnitedHealth Group in 1999.
In the report, each U.S. state’s health is analyzed by various health metrics and ranked accordingly.
For 2008, Vermont is the healthiest state in the country — a title its held for two straight years by America’s Health Rankings.
Here are the top ten healthiest states:
1. Vermont
2. Hawaii
3. New Hampshire
4. Minnesota
5. Utah
6. Massachusetts
7. Connecticut
8. Idaho
9. Maine
10. Washington
And the ten lowest ranked states:
50. Louisiana
49. Mississippi
48. South Carolina
47. Tennessee
46. Texas
45. Florida
44. Oklahoma
43. Arkansas
42. Nevada
41. Georgia
The health metrics that America’s Health Rankings uses includes a range of health statistics such as:
- Prevalence of smoking
- Infectious diseases
- Children in poverty
- Population without health insurance
- Prenatal care quality
- Primary care physicians
- Preventable hospitalizations
- Infant mortality
- Cancer deaths