The Rankings

South Dakota

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Strengths:

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

Challenges:

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

Highlights:

• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 18.4 percent to 15.5 percent of persons under age 18.
• 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 ten years, obesity increased from 19.8 percent to 27.7 percent of adults, with 169,000 obese adults in the state.
• In the past ten years, diabetes increased from 5.7 percent to 6.9 percent of adults. Now 42,000 South Dakota adults have diabetes.
• While smoking decreased from 21.9 percent to 15.4 percent of adults in the last ten years, 94,000 adults still smoke in South Dakota.

Health 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: doh.sd.gov