Strengths:

• High rate of high school graduation
• Low percentage of children in poverty
• Ready availability of primary care physicians

 

Challenges:

• Moderate rate of preventable hospitalizations
• Limited access to early prenatal care
• Low immunization coverage

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, diabetes increased from 7.7 percent to 9.2 percent of the adult population. There are now 800,000 New Jersey adults with diabetes.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 18.5 percent to 24.8 percent of the population, with 2.2 million obese adults in the state.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 76.2 to 71.6 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• While smoking has decreased from 21.0 percent to 14.4 percent of the adult population in the last ten years, 1.3 million adults still smoke in New Jersey.

 

Disparities:

• In New Jersey, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 35.9 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 23.1 percent and Hispanics at 26.8 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 13.7 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.8 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 8.5 percent of Hispanics.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.state.nj.us/health