Strengths:

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

 

Challenges:

• High percentage of children in poverty
• High prevalence of obesity & sedentary lifestyle
• High prevalence of smoking

 

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, the infant mortality rate decreased from 8.2 to 7.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.
• In the past year, children in poverty increased from 21.8 percent to 25.4 percent of children under the age of 18.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 81.5 to 79.3 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• Smoking remains high at 27.0 percent of the adult population, with more than 600,000 adult smokers in the state.
• There are almost a quarter-million adults with diabetes in Arkansas.
• Almost 700,000 adults in Arkansas are obese, and the same number of adults lead a sedentary lifestyle.

 

Disparities:

• In Arkansas, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 43.2 percent than Hispanics at 31.0 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 30.4 percent; and smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 22.7 percent than Hispanics at 16.8 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.healthyarkansas.com