Health rankings: USA is living longer, but sicker

Medical advances are allowing more people to live with obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Michelle Healy, USA TODAY Americans are living longer, with fewer deaths from heart disease and cancer, but more chronic illnesses, an annual snapshot of the USA's health shows. The 2012 America's Health Rankings highlight troubling levels of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and sedentary behavior. Medical advances are allowing more people to live with those conditions. The bottom line: Americans "are living longer, sicker" with more chronic illness, says Reed Tuckson of theUnited Health Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation that sponsors the report with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention. Among the unhealthy behaviors the report cites: More than a quarter (26.2%) of all Americans are sedentary, defined as not doing any physical activity outside of work for 30 days. But it's 36% in Mississippi, and 35.1% in both Tennessee and West Virginia. 27.8% of U.S. adults are obese, defined as being roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. That's 66 million people — more than the entire population of the United Kingdom. In even the least obese state, Colorado, more than 20% of the population is obese. The percentage of adults with diabetes is 9.5% nationally, but it's 12% or higher in West Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi. 30.8% of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, but that ranges from a low of 22.9% in Utah to a high of 40.1% in Alabama. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a primary risk for cardiovascular disease — problems related to the heart and the blood vessel. Life expectancy in the USA is now 78.5 years; premature deaths have dropped 18% since 1990, and deaths from cardiovascular disease are down 34.6%. Cancer deaths are down 7.6%. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/10/health-rankings-states/1759299/