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About 31% of U.S. Latinos are obese and 30.6% have a sedentary lifestyle, higher rates than the overall population (27.8% and 26.2%, respectively), according to a new snapshot of the nation’s health.
Latinos’ obesity and diabetes rates continue to be alarming, experts say.
But the news isn’t all bad: Latinos’ rates of premature death, death due to cancers, cardiovascular deaths and infant mortality all improved, according to an NBC Latino report on the new America’s Health Rankings.
The rankings, which comes from the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention, looks at 24 measures of health, including tobacco and alcohol abuse, exercise, infectious diseases, crime rates, premature birth rates and cancer and heart disease rates. The report ranks the states based on those indicators.
Vermont tops the list of healthiest states for the fourth-straight year. Vermont’s strengths include its number one position for all health determinants combined, which includes ranking in the top 10 states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low incidence of infectious disease, etc.
Hawaii is ranked as second-healthiest, followed by New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
Texas ranks 40th.
Mississippi and Louisiana tie for 49th as the least healthy states. Mississippi ranks in the bottom 5 states on 12 of the 24 measures including a high prevalence of obesity, a high prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle, a low high school graduation rate, limited availability of primary care physicians, a high prevalence of low birthweight infants, and a high prevalence of diabetes.
On a positive note, New Jersey (18% Latino) and Colorado (21% Latino) were two of the states that saw great improvement in health ranking measures, with New Jersey improving on nine different measures and Colorado improving across five different categories, according to the NBC Latino report.
See how your state ranks here.
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Maternal & Child HealthBy The Numbers
20.7
percent
of Latino kids have obesity (compared to 11.7% of white kids)
