According to the United Health Foundation, 26.2% of Americans lead sedentary lives, but premature deaths and death caused by heart disease and cancer have been decreasing for the past twenty years. The report released in conjunction with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention found that the healthier a state was, the fewer citizens who had sedentary lifestyles.
The study was done by phone, and determinants included: smoking, binge drinking, obesity, high school graduation rates, sedentary lifestyle, children in poverty, infectious disease cases, air pollution, violent crime, health insurance, immunizations, primary care doctors, hospitalizations, and rate of conditions and deaths, like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
So which are the healthiest states?
Vermont leads for the second year in a row.
Mississippi found itself last, tied with Louisiana, and in the same spot as last year.
The list follows:
- Vermont
- Hawaii
- New Hampshire
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- Utah
- Maine
- Rhode Island
- Colorado/North Dakota
- Oregon/Washington
- Nebraska
- Wisconsin
- Idaho
- New York
- Maryland
- Iowa
- Virginia
- California
- Wyoming
- Kansas
- Arizona
- Pennsylvania
- South Dakota
- Alaska
- Montana
- Illinois
- Delaware
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Florida
- Ohio
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Nevada
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Indiana
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Kentucky
- Alabama
- South Carolina
- West Virginia
- Arkansas
- Louisiana/Mississippi