Arkansas, Texas rank near bottom of Health of Women and Children Report

America’s Health Rankings Health of Women and Children Report was recently released by the United Health Foundation. The report uses 62 health indicators to better understand the changing health of women and children across the country and in each state individually.

Key findings nationally include a decline in smoking among women and children, an increase in women with a dedicated health care provider and a decline in the number on uninsured women and teen births.

On the downside, there has been an increase in drug deaths among females 15 to 44, a 20 percent increase since the last available statistics in 2016. The teen suicide rate has increased 6 percent for teens ages 15 to 19, and the nation’s maternal mortality rate increased 4 percent per 100,000 live births. That includes deaths from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or childbirth. Compared to other states across the country, Arkansas and Texas didn’t fare too well. Arkansas ranks 49th and Texas ranks 44th overall. The report listed some of Arkansas’ strengths as low prevalence of excessive drinking among women, low prevalence of alcohol consumption in the last three months of pregnancy and low prevalence of substance dependence or abuse among adolescents.

Some of the challenges facing the state are a low percentage of prenatal care before the third trimester and a high teen birth rate. Arkansas also ranked 46th in the incidence of chlamydia, 48th in the number of women who smoke and 41st in overweight or obese youths.

Texas strengths included a low incidence of tobacco use during pregnancy, low drug death rate among women and a high percentage of high school graduates. So of the state’s challenges are a low prevalence of cervical cancer screening, low percentage of well baby visits and a low prevalence of supportive neighborhoods.

Texas also ranked 39th in children with health insurance, 17th in high school graduation numbers and 17th in publicly-funded women’s health services.

The report illustrates alarming health disparities between the states. Some of those disparities include:

■ 41.6 drug deaths per 100,000 women ages 15 to 44 in Virginia compared to 5.5 deaths in Hawaii.

■ Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate with 46.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in contrast with California’s rate of 4.5 deaths.

■ Alaska has the highest teen suicide rate with 35.1 deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15 to 19 compared to Rhode Island which has 4.7 deaths.

■ South Dakota has the highest child mortality rate per 100,000 children 1 to 18 compared to the lowest, Connecticut, which has 12.8. The top state in the report is Massachusetts followed by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Minnesota. Mississippi takes the bottom spot followed by Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Alabama.

“The public health issues illuminated by this year’s data update to the Health of Women and Children Report reveal opportunities for improvement across the three studied populations as well as successes, including a reduction in smoking and tobacco use across the country. Findings from this update, coupled with the broader suite of America’s Health Rankings data, provide important insights to help communities craft data-driven solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing health concerns. United Health Foundation is proud to lead this effort through America’s Health Rankings as a roadmap for healthier communities,” according to the report’s conclusion.

The full report is available at americashealthrankings.org.