Strengths:

• Few poor mental & physical health days per month
• Low incidence of infectious disease
• Low levels of air pollution

 

Challenges:

• High geographic disparity within the state
• High prevalence of binge drinking
• Low immunization coverage

 

Highlights:

• In the past five years, immunization coverage dropped from 93.4 percent to 87.5 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months
• In the past ten years, the percentage of children in poverty rose significantly from 7.7 percent to 22.6 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past year, the rate of infectious disease decreased from 8.3 to 5.9 cases per 100,000 population.
• More than 140,000 adults smoke in South Dakota, or 23.0 percent of the adult population.
• Occupational fatalities decreased from 9.4 to 5.9 deaths per 100,000 workers in the past five years.
• The rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased 16 percent from 76.1 to 63.7 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees, in the past five years.

 

Disparities:

• In South Dakota, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic Native Americans at 39.8 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 28.3 percent and Hispanics at 32.2 percent; and smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic Native Americans at 50.5 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 14.4 percent and Hispanics at 17.7 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: http://doh.sd.gov