1. Mississippi
Finally, we’ve made it to the number one pick- which in this case is not something to be happy about. In terms of overall health and health care, Mississippi is the worst state in the U.S.
Health outcomes and community support? Nope, the state ranked dead last in these two categories. In fact, community support dropped from $207 to $184 per adult aged 60 and older in poverty, the average for the entirety of the state is $571. This is obviously an issue since 13.7% of seniors in the Magnolia State live in poverty- to put this into perspective, 9% of seniors live in poverty across the nation!
The early death rate is also high with 2,483 deaths per 100,000 adults aged 65 to 74 passing away early. Nationally, there are 1,791 deaths per 100,000!
The only good news that we have is the fact that only 4.1% of seniors over the age of 65 drink excessively- nationally, this figure is up at 7.4%.
1 thought on “The Worst 5 States for Seniors to Be Healthy”
Some of the measures offered here are inconsequential. How many people smoke is no measure of whether you will smoke. The same is true of drinking alcohol or over-eating. What is critical is the quality of nursing homes or assisted living homes, quality and availability of medical facilities, affordability of being able to live there, crime rates (which are not addressed), availability of public transportation, senior recreational opportunities, etc. Many of these are simply not in this article. If they were, I think the scoring by state would be vastly different.