Strengths:

• Low prevalence of binge drinking
• Low violent crime rate

 

Challenges:

• High infant mortality rate & high prevalence of low birthweight
• High prevalence of sedentary lifestyle, obesity, & diabetes
• High prevalence of smoking
• High rate of cardiovascular deaths

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 109.8 to 91.3 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• In the past year, immunization coverage decreased from 92.7 percent to 88.2 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months.7
• In the past year, the rate of uninsured population decreased from 19.2 percent to 18.6 percent.
• Last year, 63.9 percent of incoming ninth graders graduated within four years; this year it is 62.0 percent.
• Mississippi ranks last in the U.S. for sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes. There are more than 800,000 adults living a sedentary lifestyle, almost 780,000 obese adults and almost 280,000 adults with diabetes in the state.
• The percent of children under age 18 living in poverty decreased from 33.7 percent to 24.4 percent in the last year.

 

Disparities:

• In Mississippi, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 43.2 percent than Hispanics at 33.4 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 30.9 percent; sedentary lifestyle is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 37.2 percent than Hispanics at 27.3 percent; and smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 24.1 percent than Hispanics at 18.8 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.msdh.state.ms.us