Spotlight reports show large differences in prevalence of chronic diseases across states

In a pair of reports released this week, the Center on Society and Health and the Urban Institute provide detailed information on how states differ on measures of chronic diseases, and how those outcomes are connected to dozens of potential drivers of health. For example, the rates of diabetes in 2010 ranged 2.5 fold across the states –Alaska’s rate of 5.4 percent stands in contrast to Alabama’s rate of 13.5 percent. Likewise, rates of heart disease ranged almost three-fold across the states, from 2.3 percent in Hawaii to 6.0 percent in West Virginia.

The reports, titled The Health of the States: Supplement 8: Spotlight on overweight/obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions and The Health of the States: Supplement9: Spotlight on cancer, lower respiratory disease, influenza and pneumonia, and Alzheimer’s disease, are the final part of a series of reports from the Health of the States project. The supplements released today take a more detailed look at how states perform on several measures of chronic disease outcomes, including: overweight/obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, cancers, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia, and Alzheimer’s disease. For each of these measures and more, researchers provide data on outcomes for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., depict findings in maps and figures, and discuss regional trends.

In addition, researchers explore the connections between outcomes and 123 determinants of health – highlighting the strongest of those connections and providing context for why states may perform well or not. For example, as reported widely in the literature, the prevalence of overweight/obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions correlated with unhealthy behaviors such as cigarette smoking and physical inactivity, but states with higher disease rates were also places where other unhealthy behaviors, such as low rates of breastfeeding and high rates of sexual activity at early ages, were also more common. Additionally, other social, economic, and environmental conditions correlated with chronic disease rates. For example, in the 10 states with the highest incidence of strokes, the poverty rate was 17.0 percent, compared with 10.8 percent in the 10 states with the lowest rates of strokes.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the HOTS project is distinct from other health scorecards and rankings in the number of health outcomes and determinants included. By assessing and assembling 39 health outcomes and 123 determinants of health, the project provides a nuanced and textured profile of the links between health and potential drivers, such as safety of schools and neighborhoods, exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACES), expanded Medicaid coverage, and investments in transit and social programs. This data has exposed new patterns in health outcomes and drivers that could be used to develop new policies and practices to improve population health and wellbeing.

The Center has released several other supplements, offering more detail on the relationships discovered between selections of health outcomes and the 123 determinants examined. The previously released Health of the States supplemental reports are as follows:

Visit the Center’s website to learn more about HOTS, download the reports, and explore the data.