Strengths:

• High per capita public health funding
• Ready access to early prenatal care

 

Challenges:

• Low high school graduation rate
• High percentage of children in poverty
• High prevalence of smoking
• High rate of preventable hospitalizations

 

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 6.6 percent to 10.3 percent of the adult population. Now, 467,000 adults have diabetes.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 19.5 percent to 30.5 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, the violent crime rate decreased from 620 to 549 offenses per 100,000 population.
• Over 1.4 million adults in Louisiana are obese, 381,000 more individuals than 10 years ago.
• While smoking has declined from 24.1 percent to 22.1 percent of adults over the last ten years, more than 1.0 million people still smoke in Louisiana.

 

Disparities:

• In Louisiana, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 39.5 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 28.4 percent and Hispanics at 29.3 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 13.4 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 9.4 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 9.5 percent of Hispanics.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.dhh.louisiana.gov/