Strengths:

• Low prevalence of binge drinking
• High per capita public health funding
• High immunization coverage

 

Challenges:

• High prevalence of smoking
• High prevalence of obesity, sedentary lifestyle & diabetes
• High prevalence of low birthweight & high infant mortality rate

 

Highlights:

• Almost 1.2 million adults in Alabama are obese and the same number of adults lead a sedentary lifestyle.
• There are 434,000 adults with diabetes in the state.
• Smoking remains high at 24.3 percent of the adult population, with almost 900,000 adult smokers in Alabama.
• High school graduation rates have improved in the last five years from 65.0% to 69.9% of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years.
• In the past five years, the rate of preventable hospitalizations decreased from 94.8 to 80.1 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
• In the last year, the infant mortality rate declined from 9.7 to 8.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

 

Disparities:

• In Alabama, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 43.1 percent than Hispanics at 31.1 percent and non-Hispanic whites at 28.8 percent; and smoking is more prevalent among Hispanics at 31.9 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 22.0 percent and non-Hispanic blacks at 21.7 percent.

 

State Health Department Web Site: www.adph.org