Strengths:

• Low infant mortality rate
• Low prevalence of smoking
• Ready access to early prenatal care

 

Challenges:

• High levels of air pollution
• High rate of uninsured population
• Low immunization coverage

 

Highlights:

• 9.2 million people in California are obese, 2.4 million more adults than 10 years ago.
• Although1.3 million fewer adults smoke in California compared to 10 years ago, there remains 4.5 million adults who do smoke.
• California ranks lower for determinants than for outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.
• In the past five years, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 18.5 percent to 23.0 percent of the population.
• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 6.8 percent to 8.6 percent of the population. Diabetes now affects 3.2 million adults.

 

Disparities:

• In California, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 35.8 percent than non-Hispanic Asians at 8.4 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 14.1 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.0 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.cdph.ca.gov