New England states in top 10 healthiest

New England states in top 10 healthiest
Connecticut most mentally sound
(March 2009 Issue)

By Jennifer Chase Esposito

For 19 years, three organizations - the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association, and the Partnership for Prevention - have analyzed the health of the nation based on 22 criterions ranging from obesity rate, number of children in poverty and vaccinated, binge drinking, and rates of smoking.

Based on the World Health Organization's definition that health is a "state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being" and not just the absence of sickness, New England can tout its overall robustness as its six states ranked within the top 10 of the nation's oldest state-by-state health survey.

In the America's Health Rankings�-2008 Edition, Vermont and New Hampshire took top honors as the nation's first- and third-healthiest states, respectively, while Connecticut is New England's most mentally sound. In addition to capturing the gold and bronze, the rest of New England rounds out the top-10 with six slots for states with the strongest "determinants" - actions by community members that can affect the future health of a population - one of two different areas by which states are judged. "Outcomes" represent the result of what has already occurred in a state, either through missed days of work from illness or death.

Compared with the rest of the country, Vermont's strengths included low percentage of children in poverty, low prevalence of obesity, high rate of high school graduation rate and low premature death rate. New Hampshire's accolades were similar and helped it bump up one rank from 2007 in spite of its increased number of poor mental health days.

After Vermont and New Hampshire, Maine is the country's sixth healthiest, with Massachusetts ranking seventh, Connecticut, ninth and Rhode Island, tenth.

According to the report, mental health is based on the average number of days within the previous 30 surveyed that a person could not perform household or work duties because of mental illness. That data is collected by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and relies on the accuracy of respondents' estimated answers.

Connecticut ranks highest in the survey among the New England states as eighth out of 50 with 3.0 days lost, followed by Vermont at 14th (3.1 days), Massachusetts at 19th (3.2), Maine and New Hampshire tied for 32nd (3.5), and Rhode Island at 45th (3.8).

The average number of lost days because of poor mental health in the United States is 3.4 out of the previous 30, the same results as the 2007 Edition. New Hampshire was tied for the largest increase in days (0.5 out of the previous 30) since 2007.

"Unfortunately, as you will read, our nation's health is not improving," quoting the 107-page report, the oldest of its kind. "We continue to fall short of our potential, and we fare poorly in comparison to many other nations."

The survey's goal is to provide an historical look at the health of the country so that education will lead to innovative programs and resources to improve the over-all health of the nation.