Strengths:

• Few poor mental and physical health days per month
• High rate of high school graduation
• Low prevalence of diabetes

 

Challenges:

• High geographic disparity within the state
• High occupational fatalities rate
• High prevalence of binge drinking

 

Highlights:

• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 5.7 percent to 6.9 percent of adults. Now 57,000 South Dakota adults have diabetes.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 19.8 percent to 27.7 percent of adults, with 227,000 obese adults in the state.
• In the past year, the infant mortality rate increased from 6.7 to 7.4 deaths per 1,000 live births after three years of steady decline.
• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 18.4 percent to 15.5 percent of persons under age 18.
• While smoking decreased from 21.9 percent to 15.4 percent of adults in the last ten years, 126,000 adults still smoke in South Dakota.

 

Disparities:

• In South Dakota, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic American Indians at 39.4 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 28.1 percent and Hispanics at 29.2 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 12.4 percent of non-Hispanic American Indians have diabetes compared to 6.6 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 6.4 percent of Hispanics.

 

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