Strengths:

• Low rates of cancer deaths
• Lower prevalence of obesity than other states
• Ready availability of primary care physicians

 

Challenges:

• High percentage of children in poverty
• Low high school graduation rate
• Low immunization coverage

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, smoking decreased from 20.5 percent to 15.5 percent of adults. However, 3.0 million adults still smoke.
• In the past five years, the violent crime rate declined from 444 to 392 offenses per 100,000 population.
• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 6.3 percent to 8.9 percent of adults. There are now over 1.7 million adults with diabetes in the state.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 17.7 percent to 24.5 percent of adults; now, 4.8 million adults are obese in New York.
• In the past year, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 73.0 to 69.0 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.

 

Disparities:

• In New York, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 31.4 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 24.1 percent and Hispanics at 27.2 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 12.8 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 7.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 8.2 percent of Hispanics.

 

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