Arizona ranks poorly among US states for health of women, children
Mar 7, 2018, 4:21 AM
(Pixabay photo)
(Pixabay photo)
PHOENIX — The annual report from America’s Health Rankings is out and it revealed one of the areas that Arizona fares poorly in: The health of women and children.
Arizona ranked as the forty-third state in the country for women’s and children’s health in 2017, which was four spots lower than the state ranked in the 2016 report.
Deneen Vojta, the senior vice president for the UnitedHealth Group, told KTAR News 92.3 FM that while one factor is driving the state’s improvement — a low prevalence of smoking — several others were worsening Arizona’s ranking.
More than 23 percent of children in Arizona live in poverty, in addition to the high levels of air pollution and the low number of mental health providers in the state.
Vojta also said that a high rate of children experiencing or witnessing traumatic events was one of the biggest challenges still facing Arizona.
Overall, the state ranked as the thirty-first state in the country for health, dropping two spots from last year.
KTAR News’ Griselda Zetino contributed to this report.
