Since 1990, America’s Health Rankings have provided a state-by-state assessment of health in the United States. Recently the annual report for 2014 was released, allowing you to check out health reports by state regarding issues such as smoking, obesity, premature death, immunization, diabetes, and even aspects like poverty and graduation rates. Each state’s info can be broken down further by gender, age, education, income, race/ethnicity, and urbanicity. In addition to the general report, there is a specifically crafted senior report.

As a traveling healthcare professional, you may be headed to serve a population you would like to learn more about. This type of report featuring state health rankings can be very enlightening to Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals.

In the overall state health rankings the top 10 were:

1. Hawaii

2. Vermont

3. Massachusetts

4. Connecticut

5. Utah

6. Minnesota

7. New Hampshire

8. Colorado

9. North Dakota

10. Nebraska

 

And the bottom 10 were:

50. Mississippi

49. Arkansas

48. Louisiana

47. Kentucky

46. Oklahoma

45. Tennessee

44. West Virginia

43. Alabama

42. South Carolina

41. Indiana

The state health rankings provided through America’s Health Rankings are made possible through a partnership between the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association, and the Partnership for Prevention.

According to their website, America’s Health Rankings is the “longest running annual assessment of the nation’s health on a state-by-state basis.” They also say that the purpose of these state health rankings is to “stimulate action by individuals, elected officials, health care professionals, public health professionals, employers, educators, and communities to improve the health of the US population.”

The hope is that the report will encourage an important conversation about health in each state, which will ultimately lead to a group effort that improves health nationwide. Many states actually incorporate the findings when reviewing their own goals, programs, and strategies.

Click here to check out the state health rankings in full.

As a Traveler, what have you learned by serving patients in multiple states? Share you experiences in the comments.