The Rankings

Washington

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Strengths:

• Low prevalence of smoking
• Low rate of preventable hospitalizations
• Lower prevalence of diabetes than other states

Challenges:

• Low immunization coverage
• Low use of early prenatal care
• Low high school graduation rate

Highlights:

• In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 18.0 percent to 16.1 percent of persons under age 18.
• In the past five years, diabetes increased from 6.3 percent to 7.6 percent of the population. Now 391,000 Washington adults have diabetes.
• While smoking decreased from 20.7 percent to 15.2 percent of adults in the last ten years, 782,000 adults still smoke in Washington. Smoking was 14.9 percent last year.
• In the past ten years, obesity increased from 18.8 percent to 26.2 percent of adults, with more than 1.3 million obese adults in the state.
• High school graduation is the lowest in seven years, at 71.9 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate in four years.

Health Disparities:

In Washington, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 33.8 percent and Hispanics at 30.4 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 26.2 percent and non-Hispanic Asians at 7.4 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 12.8 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 5.7 percent of non-Hispanic Asians, 6.8 percent of Hispanics and 7.4 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

State Health Department Web Site: www.doh.wa.gov