Assigning Editor and project lead, 2013
How healthy are women in America? To answer this question, my team looked at all 50 states, examining a number of health categories and healthy living topics.
The report leveraged the most recent data, broken down by both state and gender. States were ranked from 1 to 50 in each category, always from the healthiest to least the healthy.
Categories include:
- Asthma
- Binge Drinking
- Cancer: Breast, Cervical, Colon, Lung, Ovarian, Skin Cancers
- Death by Firearm
- Dental Health
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol
- Life Expectancy
- Physical activity
- Smoking
Methodology and Sources:
Several more categories were included in the full report. Data for asthma, binge drinking, high cholesterol, dental care, diabetes, depression, fruits and vegetable consumption, heart disease, high blood pressure, mammograms, overweight and obesity, Pap smears, physical activity and smoking comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Rankings for breast, cervical, colon, lung, ovarian and skin cancers comes from the National Cancer Institute State Cancer Profiles database.
Data on death due to firearms and life expectancy comes from Kaiser Family Foundation State Health Facts database.
Health insurance coverage rate data comes from the Fact Sheet Health Insurance Coverage of Women by State.
The original articles in this report appeared on iVillage.com. They are now on Today.com.
