The Rankings

Delaware

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Strengths:

• Low incidence of infectious disease
• Low rate of uninsured population
• Low rate of preventable hospitalizations

Challenges:

• High prevalence of binge drinking
• High violent crime rate
• Low use of early prenatal care

Highlights:

• There are 199,000 obese adults in Delaware, 101,000 more individuals than 10 years ago.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 63.8 to 57.3 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• In the past ten years, the number of adults with diabetes increased by more than 50 percent, to 60,000 adults.
• In the past five years, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 14.2 percent to 17.5 percent of the population.
• In the past ten years, smoking decreased from 22.9 percent to 17.3 percent of adults; however, there are still 120,000 adults in Delaware who smoke.

Health Disparities:

In Delaware, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 42.5 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 26.0 percent and Hispanics at 31.5 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 11.0 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.1 percent of Hispanics and 7.9 percent of non- Hispanic whites.

State Health Department Web Site: www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss