Strengths:

• Low prevalence of binge drinking
• High immunization coverage
• High per capita public health funding

 

Challenges:

• High prevalence of diabetes
• High prevalence of obesity
• High prevalence of smoking

 

Highlights:

• In the last year, the violent crime rate decreased from 450 to 378 offenses per 100,000 population.
• In the past five years, the rate of uninsured population increased from 13.5 percent to 15.9 percent.
• In the past year, binge drinking decreased from 11.4 percent to 10.4 percent of the population.
• Diabetes has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, with 624,000 adults affected.
• Over 1.5 million people in Alabama are obese, a half million more than 10 years ago.
• Over one million adults smoke in Alabama, just 86,000 less than ten years ago.

 

Disparities:

• In Alabama, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 42.4 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 29.0 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 15.3 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 10.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.adph.org