The state of Wisconsin is no longer among the nation’s top 10 healthiest states, according to the United Health Foundation’s 2007 America’s Health Rankings released Monday.
Wisconsin fell from 10th to 12th place in the rankings, and Minnesota, the state that had previously held No. 1 honors, dropped to No. 2 behind Vermont.
The study’s profile of Wisconsin cites a high prevalence of binge drinking, increase in violent crime and high poverty rate as challenges affecting the state’s current ranking.
Tom Eckstein, an author of the health rankings report, said binge drinking in Wisconsin was “a significant reason” the national health ranking dropped this year.
“Binge drinking is a little more prevalent among young people, but it does occur among all ages,” he said. “College students aren’t totally to blame.”
Also, the violent crime rate in Wisconsin has increased in the last year from 242 to 284 offenses per 100,000 people, and the percentage of children under 18 in poverty has increased by almost 3 percent, according to the report.
Nationally, the trend that stuck out the most to Eckstein was the continuing increase in obesity.
In Wisconsin, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 135 percent since 1990, according to the study.
“It’s at the point where 1 out of 4 people in the United States are obese,” he said. “We’re not talking about overweight––we’re talking about obese.”
Eckstein said the report serves as a “call to action” and aims to motivate people to start discussion about what they can do to change their health. He said at the state level, similar health surveys are conducted in Wisconsin counties.
David Kindig, UW-Madison emeritus professor of population health sciences, said the official county health report for 2007 will be released next week, but generally, Dane County is one of healthiest counties in the state.
“Overall, Wisconsin is still quite a healthy state, although there are obviously eleven states healthier than us––particularly our neighbors to the West,” Kindig said, referencing Minnesota’s second-place ranking.
Kindig said his greatest concern was the growing health disparities in the state of Wisconsin, an issue he said the report “does not emphasize enough.”
“The bottom line message is we’re doing pretty well as a state, but there are a lot of areas we can improve in,” he said, “There’s no reason we can’t be as healthy as Minnesota.”
