Senate Health and Welfare Committee hears update on Tennessee’s overall health status
Economic development in state’s poorest counties is critical to improving health outcomes
Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dean of the East Tennessee State University’s College of Public Health, spoke to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee this week regarding Tennessee’s overall health. Wykoff pointed to the need to work on economic development in the state’s poorest counties as a critical factor in improving Tennessee’s overall health.
According to the United Health Foundation, Tennessee ranks 42nd in the nation based on 28 measures used to evaluate a state’s overall health. The ranking has improved three points from last year, a move which Wykoff called a positive trend from the low point when the state dipped to 49th in 2005.
Wykoff said unhealthy choices are a key factor in the state’s low health ranking, with tobacco use, obesity, and drug abuse accounting for some of the highest death rates in the behavioral categories in Tennessee. The state ranks 47th in smoking, 35th in obesity, 40th in physical inactivity, and 38th in drug deaths. He also linked economic development and education attainment to poor health outcomes among Tennesseans, illustrating the life expectancy gap of citizens in the state’s five wealthiest counties as compared to their counterparts in the five poorest.
“The premature death rate is about 50 percent higher in our poorest counties, reinforcing again the importance of economic development,” Wykoff said. “If Tennessee was just like our five richest counties, we would be the eighth healthiest state in the nation. If Tennessee was just like our poorest five counties, we would be worse than the state of West Virginia.” West Virginia is last in the rankings.
“What this tells is that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with us,” he continued. “What we have to work on is fundamentally improving economic development and education in our poorest, most rural counties.” He went on to say he did not see how Tennessee’s least healthy counties could improve without a comprehensive plan to enhance economic development in the state’s poorest communities.
Governor Bill Lee has already announced several legislative initiatives designed to improve rural economic development and education in the state’s most distressed counties, with further details on the plan expected to be unveiled on March 4th when he presents his budget.
Wykoff also encouraged state officials to target a small number of high-impact health challenges and implement a sustained intervention effort that works towards improvement. In addition, he recommended they focus on women during the prenatal and postnatal periods to help provide a healthy start for kids. “Having a healthy start in life will have the most impact,” he said.
The report also recognized Tennessee’s strengths, which includes a low prevalence of excessive drinking, high immunization coverage among children, and the state’s high percentage of high school graduates. It recognized a six percent decrease in the obesity rate and a 19 percent decrease in children who live in poverty. In addition, over the past decade, the percentage of uninsured Tennesseans decreased 34 percent, from 14 percent to 9.3 percent of the population.