Briana Wipf

bwipf@greatfallstribune.com

Health rankings of each state released by the United Health Foundation last week showed Montana has a low relative prevalence of obesity and diabetes and good air quality, while lagging behind other states in regard to the rate of binge drinking, immunization coverage among teens and availability of primary care physicians.

The rankings, released each year in December to compare the states to one another, ranked Montana 22nd in overall health, up one spot from 23rd last year.

Hawaii was named the healthiest state and Mississippi the unhealthiest.

Cascade City-County Health Department Health Officer Tanya Houston said health reports such as this one can be helpful to her agency in a number of ways, including reinforcing locally collected data.

“They do tend to be useful, but we never want to use them in a vacuum,” Houston said.

In 2013, a community health improvement plan tagged unhealthy weight, substance abuse and lack of access to health care as the three most important health issues for Cascade County. The United Health Foundation report seems to reinforce that on a statewide level.

Compared to other states, Montana has a low rate of obesity, with 24.3 percent of the population considered obese, with a self-reported body mass index of 30 or higher. However, having nearly a quarter of the population obese is still very high, said Kristy Helmer, director of public relations for United Health Foundations.

“Obesity is still a concern across the country,” Helmer said.

Colorado, according to this report, has the lowest rate of obesity, with 21.3 percent. West Virginia and Mississippi are tied with the highest rate, with 35.1 percent of the population obese.

Montana also has a relatively low percentage of the population that is physically inactive, with 21.4 percent reporting they have not engaged in any physical activity in the last month.

This percentage ranks Montana 13th in terms of physical activity. Colorado ranked highest and Mississippi ranked lowest.

Montana’s inactive population has fallen since 2012, when 24.4 percent of the population reported being inactive.

Montana’s challenges include a high rate of binge drinking, with 20.8 percent of the population reporting having engaged in the activity (having more than four drinks in one occasion for women, or five drinks for men) in the last month.

The rate of binge drinking is one Montana has struggled with for the past few years, with the rate hovering around 20 or 21 percent since 2012.

The percentage of teens current on their immunizations has fallen as well, with 54.7 percent of teens age 13 to 17 having received one dose of Tdap, one dose of meningococcal conjugate vaccine and three doses of HPV, for females.

Linked to the relatively low rate of teen immunization is the rate of pertussis, which is included in the Tdap immunizations.

Over the past two years, according to the report, the rate of pertussis in Montana has increased by 300 percent.

That increase has been seen in Cascade County in the last two weeks, as a cluster in Great Falls Public Schools left 13 children ill.

Pertussis rates have increased across the nation, but Montana is ranked 45th in the United Health Foundation report.

Changes to the pertussis vaccine in the 1990s may have rendered the vaccine with fewer side effects, like redness at the injection site, but also with waning immunity for some as time goes by.

Houston said part of the increase in reported cases may be because of increased awareness, testing and reporting, as well as increased circulation of the bacteria that causes pertussis.

Other highlights of the report include:

• A decrease in smoking across the state by 14 percent over the past two years.

• A decrease of children living in poverty by 19 percent over the past two years.

•An increase in low birth weight by 32 percent over the past 20 years. Low birth weight is defined as weighing fewer than 2,500 grams, or 5 pounds, 8 ounces.

•While Montana is ranked 36th in occupational fatality rate, it has declined steadily since the first year of the report in 1990, from 23.7 deaths per 100,000 workers to 5.4 deaths per 100,000 workers.

See the report

To see the full report and how Montana ranks against other states, visit www.americas

healthrankings.org/.