The 124-page United Health Foundation: America’s Health Rankings Senior Report may seem daunting to read, but it serves an important function: “By assessing the current status of senior health, communities, governments, individuals, and other organizations can build awareness of the breadth of issues facing our seniors—and, by extension, our communities—and learn where and how to take action to improve the health of our current and future seniors.”
Highlights for California:
• California has one of the highest rates of chronic drinking at 5.6 percent of adults aged 65 and older.
• More than 900,000 adults aged 65 and older in California are obese and about the same number are physically inactive.
• Over 20 percent of California adults aged 65 and older have spent 7 or more days in the ICU during the last 6 months of life.
• More than 700,000 adults aged 60 and older are marginally food insecure in California.
• Although fewer adults aged 65 and older smoke in California compared to other states, almost 300,000 seniors still smoke.
Click here to see the entire report; scroll down to page 46 to search the alphabetical list of states with their data. [Hat tip to Ann Davis Garvin for the link.]
