Nevada drops to 42nd least healthy state

By Jeff Pope (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009 | 12:01 a.m.

Nevada dropped to among the 10 unhealthiest states due to low graduation and high crime rates in an annual report issued in December.

The Silver State dropped three spots to 42 overall in the 2008 America's Health Rankings that listed Vermont as the healthiest state and Louisiana as the least healthiest. The overall health of Americans remained stable for a fourth year, according to the report issued by the United Health Foundation, which assessed a series of measures including obesity, health insurance coverage, air pollution, infectious disease rates, crime levels and binge drinking.

Nevada scored well with a low prevalence in obesity, ranked 13th; low levels of air pollution, 14th; and a low rate of preventable hospitalizations, 13th overall.

However, the state finished at the bottom with low graduation rates and immunization coverage and ranked 48th in violent crimes.

The researchers considered education as a vital contributor to health because consumers must be able to learn about, create and maintain healthy lifestyles and understand and participate in their options for care. The report does not address a dropout's ability to obtain a job that provides medical benefits.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds a direct link between education and a healthy life. The less schooling people have, the higher their levels of risky health behaviors such as smoking, being overweight or having a low level of physical activity. The more schooling people have, the more money they earn, enabling them to purchase better housing in safer neighborhoods, healthier food, better medical care and health insurance, the CDC reports.

The report lists Nevada's graduation rate at 55.8 percent, down from 67 percent in 2007. The Clark County School District reported its graduation rate as 60.1 percent as of June.

A separate study published in Education Week in June reported Nevada has the lowest high school graduation rate in the country at 45.4 percent. State and local school officials criticized that report for not taking into account the state's high transient rate.

The transient rate and population explosion in recent years also affected the low immunization rate, said Tami Chartraw, manager of the Nevada Immunization Program.

Such reports have their flaws but are valuable as benchmarks for programs, she said.

"What we like to look at more is the trend data and there was an increase of four points over the previous year," she said. "We know we're doing some things right and the data are actually a little bit behind, so the stuff we're doing now won't show up for a year or two."

The Nevada Division of Health has a 5-year-old statewide registry of vaccinations for children but records are incomplete, Chartraw said. The immunization rate should improve when mandatory reporting begins July 1. That's when any vaccination administered to a child up to 18 years old must be reported to the registry.

Violent crime measures the annual number of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults per 100,000 population as reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Violent crime reflects an aspect of current U.S. lifestyle and is an indicator of health risk and death.

Nevada had 751 offenses per 100,000 people while the national average is 467 offenses per 100,000.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or jeff.pope@hbcpub.com