The Rankings

Missouri

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Strengths:

• High rate of high school graduation
• High use of early prenatal care

Challenges:

• High prevalence of smoking
• High incidence of infectious disease
• High preventable hospitalizations
• Low immunization coverage

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, smoking decreased from 27.2 percent to 21.1 percent of the adult population; however, there are still 963,000 adults in Missouri who smoke.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 23.8 percent to 20.5 percent of persons under age 18.
• Children in poverty was 10.6 percent in 2001. In the past year, diabetes increased from 7.9 percent to 9.4 percent of the adult population; 429,000 adults now have diabetes.
• In the past five years, obesity increased from 26.9 percent to 31.4 percent of the adult population. There are now more than 1.4 million obese adults in the state.
• The rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease has decreased by 21 percent in the last ten years, from 381.1 to 301.9 deaths per 100,000 population.

Health Disparities:

In Missouri, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 38.2 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 29.5 percent and Hispanics at 29.0 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 13.2 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 8.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 7.0 percent of Hispanics.

State Health Department Web Site: www.dhss.mo.gov