Virginia and Maryland trail the majority of states in two critical areas — infectious disease and infant mortality rates, and the District faces problems with crime, poverty and premature death, according to a comprehensive national health report released Monday by the United Health Foundation.
The study evaluated several key health indicators including state health spending, clinical care quality, and smoking, drinking and violent crime rates.
The District, which is not ranked among the states, faces health challenges in its high violent crime and premature death rates, as well as its 31.8 percent of children living in poverty — a number that is up 7 percentage points from last year, the study said.
Also, only 60 percent of women in D.C. have access to adequate prenatal care.
The city has made gains, however, in its high school graduation rate, which climbed from 59.6 percent last year to 68.2 percent this year, and in its smoking rate, which dropped from 20 percent of the population to 18 percentthis year.
It also has low rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer and high immunization coverage — 82 percent of D.C. children receive standard immunizations.
Virginia ranked 22nd among the states in overall health, down from 21st in 2006, and placed 29th in infectious disease rate.
While Maryland climbed four places to 28th this year in overall health ratings, the state has 37 cases of infectious disease for every 100,000 people, the third-worst rate in the nation and markedly higher than the national average of 22.5 cases. Only New York and Florida ranked lower.
Infectious diseases include a range of illnesses from HIV/AIDS and other sexually diseases to flu.
United Health Foundation board member Dr. Reed Tuckson said Maryland’s low ranking may be partly the result of the state’s strong reporting system, but that a larger factor is Baltimore’s high HIV/AIDS rate and large concentration of the population in urban areas, where poverty is more prevalent.
Maryland also fell from 24th to 29th in the rankings in the number of children who receive standard immunizations, a key strategy for preventing disease.
Virginia has also seen a drop in immunizations — it fell from fifth last year to 21st this year.
Both Maryland and Virginia fared well in some important areas, including access to primary care and a low percentage of children in poverty.
