Strengths:

• Low prevalence of obesity
• Low incidence of infectious disease

 

Challenges:

• Low per capita public health funding
• Low high school graduation rate
• High rate of uninsured population
• High violent crime rate

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, the rate of preventable hospitalization decreased from 65.3 to 58.1 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• In the past ten years, the rate of uninsured population increased from 15.9 percent to 22.0 percent of the population.
• In the past year, the incidence of infectious disease increased from 4.8 to 6.0 cases per 100,000 population.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 23.6 percent to 20.6 percent of persons under age 18. Children in poverty was 8.7 percent in 2002.
• Nevada’s obesity rate is lower than most other states. However, more than 500,000 adults are obese in the state.
• Ten years ago, the infant mortality rate was 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births; today it is 5.6.

 

Disparities:

• In Nevada, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 30.4 percent than Hispanics at 23.4 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: http://dhhs.nv.gov/