PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island ranked No. 11 on the 2017 United Health Foundation’s “America’s Health Rankings” annual report released this month.
The Ocean State moved up three rankings this year from 2016. The study measures factors in five categories: behaviors, community and environment, policy, clinical care – which is combined with a ranking called determinants – and outcomes.
Rhode Island ranked No. 7 in the nation for determinants – all factors in the study excluding health care outcomes.
Policy:
Rhode Island ranked No. 3 in the nation for healthiest policies with high adolescent immunization rates, a No. 7 ranking for most public health funding per person ($140) and No. 6 for lowest percentage of uninsured residents (5 percent).
Clinical Care:
Rhode Island ranked No. 11 for best overall clinical care in the U.S., with the most primary care physicians per 100,000 residents than any other state in the nation at 256.3 and No. 6 for most mental health providers per 100,000 residents at 375. However, Rhode Island ranked No. 36 in the nation for the most preventable hospitalizations.
Community & Environment:
For community and environment, Rhode Island ranked No. 13 for best in the nation, with a low violent-crime rate (No. 8 for lowest in the nation), No. 10 in the nation for lowest rates of infectious disease, but ranked No. 19 for lowest child poverty rate and No. 20 for lowest air pollution.
Behaviors:
Of all the determinant factors, which include community and environment, policy, clinical care and behaviors, the behaviors metric was Rhode Island’s lowest rank at No. 17 in the nation.
Rhode Island ranked No. 4 for most drug deaths per 100,000 residents at 24.9 deaths. The report said five years prior, the drug-death rate was only 16 deaths per 100,000 residents.
The state ranked No. 29 for highest graduation rate at 83.2 percent of high school students. Rhode Island also ranked No. 31 in the nation for least physical inactivity, despite ranking No. 10 for lowest obesity rates in the nation.
Outcomes:
While Rhode Island ranked No. 7 for determinants alone on the 2017 health rankings, the state’s outcomes ranked No. 29 for most positive health outcomes.
Rhode Island was said to have the 9th-highest rate of adults with frequent mental distress at 13.5 percent. The study noted this rate in Rhode Island has increased 2.6 percentage points over two years.
Rhode Island ranked No. 31 in the nation for lowest rate of frequent physical distress in adults at 12.4 percent.
Rhode Island did, however, receive a No. 10 ranking for lowest infant mortality in the nation at five per 1,000 live births.
Other details:
The report highlighted Rhode Island’s strengths as its low percentage of uninsured residents, its high number of primary care physicians and its low violent-crime rate.
It noted its weaknesses were its high drug-death rate, its high prevalence of frequent mental distress and its high rate of preventable hospitalizations.
Massachusetts ranked No. 1 overall in the study followed by Hawaii, Vermont, Utah and Connecticut.
At No. 11, Rhode Island was the second-lowest ranked state in New England. Overall, Vermont ranked No. 3, Connecticut ranked No. 5, New Hampshire ranked No. 8 and Maine ranked No. 23 in the report.
Mississippi ranked last in the nation.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
