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If you look at life, death and health by the numbers, we rate a “meh” in Virginia.
They’re a bit more scientific about it, but that’s the state of health of commonwealth residents as found in “The Health of the States,” a study released Wednesday by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center on Society and Health and the Urban Institute in Washington. The study provides an extensive look at just how healthy residents in each state are.
Overall, Virginia is a solid 25 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii tops the ranking, and Mississippi is at the bottom of the chart.
What makes this ranking different is the number of categories and risk factors that are assessed. The study takes a look at 39 health outcomes that can occur throughout life, and 123 factors that can affect health. It also considers socioeconomic and environmental factors, political considerations and social spending. Overall, the researchers write that their report “provides a detailed snapshot of the geographic footprint of the diseases and injuries that afflict America.”
A key ranking is a look at life expectancy and death rates that is based on nine different factors: Homicide, suicide, drug overdose, traffic fatalities, accidents, infant mortality, life expectancy at age 65, years of life lost before age 75 and newborn life expectancy. In this assessment, the lower the number ranking the better.
That’s the chart on which Virginia comes in at 25. What’s interesting is to look at the range of rankings in those categories. The commonwealth is as high as eight in drug overdoses, and is 33 in infant mortality and in life expectancy at age 65.
In terms of chronic disease mortality, Virginia fared relatively well in diabetes mortality (10), lower-respiratory mortality (12) and Alzheimer’s mortality (14), but scored poorly in influenza and pneumonia mortality (32), stroke mortality (35) and renal disease mortality (42).
In children’s health, Virginia rated 12th in teen births and 13th in general health status and in dental problems; middle of the pack in STDs; in the middle in chronic diseases such as stroke (25) and diabetes (27), but fared better than average in obesity (11) and lung cancer (16); and in the bottom tier in the quality-of-life subcategories of mentally unhealthy days (36) and physically unhealthy days (31).
The researchers also delved into correlations between various behaviors and health outcomes. They also looked at how your living environment, such as whether you live in a walkable neighborhood or close to a park, affects your health, and the importance of such factors as education level and income in your overall health.
Highest correlations involved health behaviors such as smoking, then social and economic factors, health systems, physical and social environment factors, then public policy and spending.
There are a lot of obvious correlations here, such as a high correlation of tobacco use and minimal physical activity with lower life expectancy and assorted ailments. There also were some peculiar links, such as more teens carrying weapons or using drugs or alcohol before having sex in states with higher smoking rates; and more homicides and automobile-related fatalities in states where teens “engaged in more unsafe sex.”
Researchers note that the associations don’t mean there is a causal relationship.
But such information does raise questions. As the researchers note, this data is meant to be a starting point: “Our goal here is to start the conversation – to raise questions about intriguing patterns observable in the state-level data and to encourage researchers and policymakers to explore them further.”
Steven Woolf
Steven Woolf
The main takeway from the study is that health care is just part of a number of factors that affect health, according to Steven Woolf, lead author and director of the Center on Society and Health. It's also about lifestyle, socioeconomic and environmental factors. The study notes that health care in general accounts for just 10 to 20 percent of health outcomes.
He hopes that the study will influence public policy and lead to more emphasis on the economic plight of families in need. He notes that in Richmond, some East End neighborhood residents have a life expectancy that's 20 years shorter than that of Richmonders who live just a few miles away.
Public policy is also health policy, he says. So decisions in neighborhoods that improve factors such as schools, jobs, transportation and the environment also may lead to improved health and longevity and lower health care costs.
"Health is about more than health care," Woolf says.
The study was funded through a $449,975 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
