According to a wire report I saw in the Journal & Courier, Indiana ranks 5th to last in a new nationwide survey of well-being that queries people on mental, physical and economic health. We are ahead of West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Arkansas. Ohio surprises me, but the rest of those are traditionally dead-end states that Indiana probably doesn’t want to emulate.
The survey broke findings down by congressional district. Indiana’s 2nd District, home to South Bend, ranked 423rd out of the 435 districts nationwide for overall well-being. It ranked last for healthy behavior.
In general, the highest well-being scores came from states in the West, while the lowest were concentrated in the South.
An explanation for the survey is here. More information is available here.
These new, state-level data are the results from The AHIP State and Congressional District Resource for Well-Being. The Well-Being Index score for the nation and for each state is an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, healthy behaviors, work environment, physical health, emotional health, and access to basic necessities. The questions in each sub-index are asked nightly of 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older.
My own district, the fourth district, has the best well-being rank in the state leading in work quality and access to basic necessities. This isn’t exactly high praise, however, since that puts us at 240th out of the 435 congressional districts. Healthy behavior, however, is where Indiana really seems to fall apart. The Fourth District ranks 2nd in terms of Indiana’s Congressional Districts for healthy behavior, but nationally it is 393rd. Indiana is 48th out of 50 in terms of healthy behavior. Only Kentucky and Mississippi are worse. Generally speaking, this means we eat poorly, we smoke too much, and we don’t exercise. Maybe we should rethink opposition to things like smoking bans and health information on menus. I’m a little surprised at how aggravated being this low on a pretty controllable aspect of the index makes me. Don’t smoke, eat better, and exercise, after all, are things that are within all of our power.
You mean the portion of Indiana that keeps re-electing Pat Bauer makes poor decisions?
You don’t say.
Mike Pence,rep. from Indiana is now appearing frequently on TV interview shows giving the conservative answer to Obama.Before the last election he was only a name occasionally referenced on this blog and I had no idea what he looked like.Now he seems ‘core national conservative’
It points out what a house cleaning the November election was.
Pence is an articulate guy with a good head of hair. About two years ago he caught some crap for saying that the Baghdad market he was at was like any open-air market in Indiana in the summertime; prompting quips about what a shit hole Indiana must be.
Rep. Pence is a guy who just started believing in the stuff he had to say to maintain his political position. Too bad.
I’m doing my part to buck the trend-of course it doesn’t hurt that our Board of Pensions is offering monetary incentives to us for making healthier changes in our lives…like $100 just for taking a health assessment on-line survey, $200 for making a change, 100% covered physical and medical tests (once you’re over the age that such tests are recommended), six 100% covered mental health visits/year-for any reason, 100% covered yearly eye exams, discounted memberships to health clubs, etc.
Doug: Why are you surprised about Ohio? Their health habits probably aren’t much better than ours, and the state’s industrial base is shrinking. Access to basic necessities is likely a problem for a lot of people there.
In the last few days, I’ve read that Indiana is dead last in receiving CDC funds for public health and that the Healthy Indiana Plan (Mitch’s health insurance for the uninsured) is going to put childless adult applicants on a waiting list. Of course, for the people who don’t believe in public health, those things are nothing to worry about.
I’ll agree that Pence has a nice head of hair. Articulate? Not particularly, IMO.
My surprise isn’t necessarily justified, but I have a view of Ohio as being a little more advanced than Indiana and, more to the point I guess, more advanced than Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, etc.
My knee-jerk mindset is that Appalachia and the Old Confederacy are backward places with poor education and poor health with Indiana ahead of such places and Ohio even further ahead. With this kind of new data, I should probably reevaluate my mindset.
Don’t forget that much of southern and southeastern Ohio are considered Appalachia…and then you have the Rust Belt in the north….and…well…they’re Buckeyes (end of argument!)
Don’t forget that much of southern and southeastern Ohio is considered Appalachia…and then you have the Rust Belt in the north….and…well…they’re Buckeyes (end of argument!)
Doug I have an interesting view of one of the states you mentioned-Arkansas. On a recent visit, to my relatives we started talking state and local politics. Arkansas has the model of county government that Mitch thinks we should adopt. Seems the old confederacy is not that backward after all.