2019 America's Health Rankings Report: Health of Women and Children

The United Health Foundation in September released the America’s Health Rankings® Health of Women and Children Report. This report builds on the United Health Foundation’s ongoing efforts to improve the health of America’s women and children.  

Among this year’s key findings:

• Encouraging progress across key markers of health.
  • Teen births have decreased 22%, with all states seeing improvements. 
  • Smoking and tobacco use have decreased since 2016. 
  • Nearly 1.3 million more women ages 18 to 44 received the flu vaccine.
• Stark disparities influence the health and well-being of women and children.
  • There is a 5.8 times higher rate of maternal deaths occurring in Louisiana compared with Alaska.
  • Black mothers have a higher percentage of low birthweight infants — twice the rate of white mothers.
• Troubling mortality rates, including sharp increases in teen suicide and child mortality.
  • Since 2016, there has been a 25% increase in the teen suicide rate and a 6% increase in the child mortality rate. 
• Rhode Island improves to the top overall position in terms of health for women and children, followed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut.
• Mississippi has the greatest opportunity for improvement in overall health, followed by Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Nevada.

About America’s Health Rankings

For nearly 30 years, America's Health Rankings has provided the longest running analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis by evaluating a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental, and socioeconomic data to determine national health benchmarks and state rankings.

Its mission is to provide a wide variety of health and health-related information to help build healthier communities and help policy-makers, community leaders, advocates and individuals.