Strengths:

• High immunization coverage
• Low percentage of children in poverty
• Low violent crime rate
• Ready access to early prenatal care

 

Challenges:

• Moderate per capita public health funding
• Moderate prevalence of binge drinking

 

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 18.1 percent to 25.5 percent of the adult population, with 338,000 obese adults in the state.
• In the past year, diabetes increased from 7.1 percent to 7.9 percent of the adult population. There are now 105,000 New Hampshire adults with diabetes.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 10.5 percent to 6.2 percent of persons under age 18.
• Since 1990, the infant mortality rate decreased from 8.4 to 4.7 deaths per 1,000 live births and is the lowest among all states.
• While smoking has decreased from 25.3 percent to 16.9 percent of the adult population in the last ten years, 224,000 adults still smoke in New Hampshire.

 

Disparities:

• In New Hampshire, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic whites at 25.8 percent than Hispanics at 24.0 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.dhhs.state.nh.us