Study: Georgia among nation's least healthy states

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgians are smoking less but eating more, habits that contributed to the state ranking 43rd in a new national health study.

Southern states dominated the bottom half of the rankings in the 20th annual study, commissioned by the American Public Health Association, the United Health Foundation and Partnership for Prevention. Georgia dropped from 41st last year, a trend that appears likely to continue, according to the 2009 report.

“The primary drivers of poor health and high health care costs are behaviors — tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption — that are largely preventable,” said Robert J. Gould, president and CEO of Partnership for Prevention. “Without addressing these underlying causes of poor health, we will never be able to do more than provide temporary solutions to the difficult problems facing our health system and the nation’s health.”

Though less Georgians are smoking now than a year ago, 19.5 percent of the state still consumes tobacco -- 1.2 percent higher than the national average. Meanwhile, more than a quarter of Georgians (27.8 percent) are obese, a figure more in line with the rest of the country.

“Challenges [in Georgia] include a low high school graduation rate with 62.4 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years, a high incidence of infectious disease at 24.6 cases per 100,000 population, high levels of air pollution at 13.9 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic meter and a high rate of uninsured population at 17.7 percent,” the report noted. “Georgia ranks lower for health determinants than for health outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.”

Vermont, 20th in 1990, ranked first this year, followed by Utah, Massachusetts, Hawaii and New Hampshire. The bottom five, from worst to 46th: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina.