Strengths:

• High per capita public health funding
• Low levels of air pollution
• Low rate of cardiovascular and cancer deaths

 

Challenges:

• High percentage of children in poverty
• High rate of uninsured population
• Low high school graduation rate

 

Highlights:

• Although New Mexico has a lower rate of sedentary lifestyle than most other states in the U.S., there are still 395,000 sedentary adults in the state.
• In the past five years, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 67.0 to 54.9 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees
• In the past ten years, infant mortality decreased from 6.8 to 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.
• Last year, 27.6 percent of persons under age 18 lived in poverty; this year it is 31.7 percent.
• New Mexico ranks lower for determinants than for outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.

 

Disparities:

• In New Mexico, obesity is more prevalent among Hispanics at 30.7 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 20.6 percent; smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 23.6 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 15.9 percent; and sedentary lifestyle is more prevalent among Hispanics at 26.3 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 18.7 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.health.state.nm.us