Tennessee

Tennessee is 48^th this year; it was 46^th in 2003. Its strengths are a low rate of uninsured population at 13.2 percent and moderate access to prenatal care with 77.1 percent of pregnant women receiving adequate prenatal care. Challenges include a high infant mortality rate at 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births and a low high school graduation rate with 56.7 percent of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years. The state also ranks in the bottom 10 states on seven of the other individual measures, including a high prevalence of smoking, a high prevalence of obesity, a high violent crime rate, a high rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease, a high rate of cancer deaths, a high total mortality rate and a high premature death rate. Tennessee is 44^th for the combined measures of risk factors and 46^th for the combined measures of outcomes, suggesting that the state's health is likely to remain at the same relative healthiness in the near future. Health disparity is present within the state, as illustrated by differences in premature death rates between black non-Hispanic individuals (14,538 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population) and white non-Hispanic individuals (8,395 years lost).

In the past year, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 27.7 percent to 25.6 percent of the population, the rate of uninsured population increased from 10.8 percent to 13.2 percent and the number of limited activity days per month increased from 1.9 to 2.3 days in the previous 30 days.

Since 1990, the violent crime rate has increased from 534 to 717 offenses per 100,000 population, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled from 11.8 percent to 25.0 percent of the population and the percentage of children in poverty has declined from 29.6 percent to 18.7 percent of persons under age 18.

To learn more about health and health initiatives in Tennessee, visit the Tennessee state department of health Web site at: www.state.tn.us/health/

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