Strengths:

• Low incidence of infectious disease
• Low rate of preventable hospitalizations
• Low violent crime rate

 

Challenges:

• High rate of uninsured population
• Limited availability of primary care physicians
• Low immunization coverage

 

Highlights:

• Idaho ranks lower for determinants than for outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.
• In the past five years, diabetes increased from 6.8 percent to 7.9 percent of adults. 123,000 Idaho adults now have diabetes.
• In the past five years, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 12.4 percent to 18.9 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 49.1 to 45.3 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• Over 400,000 adults in Idaho are obese, 174,000 more individuals than 10 years ago.
• While smoking has decreased significantly from 22.3 percent to 15.7 percent of adults in the past ten years, 245,000 individuals still smoke in Idaho.

 

Disparities:

• In Idaho, smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic American Indians at 29.1 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 16.1 percent. Similarly, 41.1 percent of non-Hispanic American Indian adults are obese compared to 25.1 percent of non-Hispanic white adults.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.healthandwelfare.idaho.gov