Strengths:

• High immunization coverage
• Low prevalence of binge drinking

 

Challenges:

• Low high school graduation rate
• High percentage of children in poverty
• High prevalence of diabetes
• High prevalence of obesity

 

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 7.1 percent to 10.7 percent of adults. Now 492,000 South Carolina adults have diabetes.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 22.0 percent to 32.0 percent of adults, with 1.5 million obese adults in the state.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 17.6 percent to 25.7 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, the rate of uninsured population increased from 16.4 percent to 18.7 percent.
• While smoking decreased from 24.9 percent to 21.0 percent of adults in the last ten years, 965,000 adults still smoke in South Carolina.

 

Disparities:

• In South Carolina, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 40.3 percent and Hispanics at 38.2 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 27.4 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 13.4 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 8.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 10.0 percent of Hispanics.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.scdhec.net