Iowa

Iowa is 11^th this year; it was seventh in 2003. The state is in the top 10 states for six of the 18 individual measures this year - the state has a low number of limited activity days per month at 1.4 days in the previous 30 days, a high rate of high school graduation with 82.9 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years, a low premature death rate with 6,086 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population, high access to adequate prenatal care with 84.5 percent of pregnant women receiving adequate prenatal care, a low incidence of infectious disease at 6.4 cases per 100,000 population and a low infant mortality rate at 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Iowa's challenges include low support for public health with 2.2 percent of the state health budget allocated to public health and a high prevalence of obesity at 23.9 percent of the population. In general, risk factors and outcome measures (ranked at 11^th and 9^th respectively) continue to be at par with Iowa's overall ranking, indicating a balance between efforts and results. Health disparities within the state are evident in access to adequate prenatal care; only 71.8 percent of pregnant black women receive adequate prenatal care compared to 85.2 percent of pregnant white women.

In the past year, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 23.2 percent to 21.7 percent of the population, the premature death rate declined from 6,354 to 6,086 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 7.6 percent to 13.4 percent of persons under age 18 and the rate of uninsured population increased from 9.5 percent to 11.3 percent.

Since 1990, the rate of motor vehicle deaths has decreased from 2.6 to 1.4 deaths per 100,000,000 miles driven, the rate of uninsured population has increased from 7.6 percent to 11.3 percent and the total mortality rate has increased slightly.

To learn more about health and health initiatives in Iowa, visit the Iowa state department of health Web site at: idph.state.ia.us/

A dash (--) indicates data not available.
* Data sources and/or methdology may not be comparable for this year.