Strengths:

• High rate of high school graduation
• Low prevalence of binge drinking
• Low prevalence of low birthweight

 

Challenges:

• Limited availability of primary care physicians
• Low per capita public health funding
• High occupational fatalities rate

 

Highlights:

• Ten years ago, 13.6 percent of persons under age 18 lived in poverty; this year it is 21.1 percent.
• The rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease declined in the last ten years from 321.1 to 260.3 deaths per 100,000 population.
• In the past 5 years, the amount of public health funding increased from $37 to $45 dollars per person.
• In the past five years, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 80.8 to 66.8 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• Kansas has one of the highest obesity rates in the U.S., with more than 630,000 obese adults.

 

Disparities:

• In Kansas, sedentary lifestyle is more prevalent among Hispanics at 34.1 percent than non-Hispanic blacks at 26.5 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 22.8 percent; smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 23.6 percent than Hispanics at 17.1 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 16.9 percent; and obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 39.4 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 28.9 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.kdheks.gov