The Rankings

Nebraska

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Strengths:

• High rate of high school graduation
• Few poor mental and physical health days per month
• Low percentage of children in poverty
• Low rate of uninsured population

Challenges:

• High prevalence of binge drinking
• High incidence of infectious disease

Highlights:

• While smoking decreased from 21.2 percent to 17.2 percent of adults in the last ten years, 235,000 adults still smoke in Nebraska.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 69.1 to 65.7 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 21.1 percent to 27.5 percent of adults, with 376,000 obese adults in the state.
• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 4.9 percent to 7.7 percent of adults. Now 105,000 Nebraska adults have diabetes.
• In the past ten years, the violent crime rate decreased from 430 to 280 offenses per 100,000 population.
• The incidence of infectious disease increased 18 percent in the last year, from 12.0 to 14.1 cases per 100,000 population.

Health Disparities:

In Nebraska, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 39.6 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 27.0 percent and Hispanics at 31.8 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 11.7 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.5 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 8.5 percent of Hispanics.

State Health Department Web Site: www.hhs.state.ne.us