Strengths:

• Low geographic disparity within the state
• Low prevalence of binge drinking

 

Challenges:

• Low per capita public health funding
• High levels of air pollution
• High percentage of children in poverty
• High prevalence of smoking

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, diabetes increased from 8.3 percent to 9.8 percent of the adult population. Now, 630,000 Indiana adults have diabetes.
• In the past five years, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 18.6 percent to 25.2 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, the infant mortality rate decreased from 7.8 to 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations increased from 75.6 to 78.4 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• While smoking has decreased from 26.9 percent to 21.2 percent of adults in the past ten years, 1.4 million people still smoke in Indiana.
• Almost two million adults in Indiana are obese, 618,000 more individuals than 10 years ago.

 

Disparities:

• In Indiana, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 37.0 percent than Hispanics at 28.4 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 28.8 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 14.8 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 9.4 percent of Hispanics and 9.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.in.gov/isdh