{"id":4207,"date":"2015-04-06T14:33:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T18:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=4207"},"modified":"2015-04-02T15:35:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:35:03","slug":"monday-raising-the-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/monday-raising-the-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday: Raising the Grade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/03\/NPHW_2.jpg\" class=\"broken_link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4208\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/03\/NPHW_2.jpg\" alt=\"NPHW_(2)\" width=\"290\" height=\"117\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nphw.org\/tools-and-tips\/themes\/raising-the-grade\"><strong><em>What does the data reveal about America\u2019s health?<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. doesn\u2019t have the top health care system \u2013 we have a great \u201csick care\u201d system. We have great doctors, state-of-the-art hospitals and we\u2019re leaders in advanced procedures and pharmaceuticals. But studies consistently show that despite spending twice as much, we trail other countries in life expectancy and almost all other measures of good health. This holds true across all ages and income levels. So what is missing?\u00a0 We need a stronger public health system that supports healthy communities and moves us toward preventing illness, disease and injury.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facts &amp; Stats:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We\u2019ve seen some improvements!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2013:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Smoking continued its decline from 19.6% to 19.0% of the adult population.<\/li>\n<li>Immunization coverage increased from 64% to 67.1% of adolescents aged 13 to 17 years.<\/li>\n<li>We have many successes like increasing life expectancy, reducing infant mortality and declining cardiovascular deaths \u2013 but other countries are succeeding faster than we are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>And yet, compared to peers in other countries, people in the U. S. have\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Shorter lives<\/strong> \u2013 Over the past 25 years U.S. life expectancy has grown, but at a slower rate than in other countries. Studies consistently show we have a lower life expectancy than comparable countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adverse birth outcomes<\/strong> \u2013 we have the highest infant mortality rate, low birth weights, the highest rate of women dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth and children are less likely to live to age 5.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Highest rates of injury and homicides<\/strong> \u2013 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, non-transportation injuries and violence occur at much higher rates than in other countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heart disease<\/strong> \u2013 the U.S. death rate from ischemic heart disease is the second highest; at age 50 Americans have a less favorable cardiovascular risk profile and adults over age 50 are more likely to develop and die from cardiovascular disease<\/li>\n<li><strong>Obesity and diabetes<\/strong> \u2013 For decades the U.S. has had the highest obesity rates across all age groups and adults are among the highest prevalence of diabetes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chronic lung disease<\/strong> \u2013 Lung disease is more prevalent and associated with higher mortality.<\/li>\n<li>Disability \u2013 Older U.S. adults report a higher prevalence of arthritis and activity limitations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease <\/strong>\u2013 our adolescents had the highest rate of pregnancies and are more likely to acquire sexually transmitted diseases.<\/li>\n<li><strong>HIV and AIDS<\/strong> \u2013 we have the second highest prevalence of HIV infection among 17 peer countries and the highest incidence of AIDS.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Drug related mortality<\/strong> \u2013 we lose more years of life to alcohol and other drugs than people in peer countries even when deaths from drunk driving are excluded. In fact the President\u2019s 2014 National Drug Control Strategy noted that drug induced overdose deaths now surpass homicides and car crash deaths.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next? <\/strong>Together we can create the healthiest nation in one generation.<\/p>\n<p>We have a lot of challenges to overcome, but it all starts with a simple first step:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/action.apha.org\/site\/PageNavigator\/pledge_2030.html?utm_source=NPHW&amp;utm_medium=NPHWWebsite&amp;utm_term=pledge&amp;utm_content=HN1G&amp;utm_campaign=Mondaypage\" class=\"broken_link\">Sign the pledge<\/a><\/span> to show your commitment.\u00a0 Ask others to sign as well because the more people who sign, the more influence we have to drive change.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/action.apha.org\/site\/PageNavigator\/petition_2030.html?utm_source=NPHW&amp;utm_medium=NPHWWebsite&amp;utm_term=petition&amp;utm_content=HN1G&amp;utm_campaign=Mondaypage\" class=\"broken_link\">Sign the petition<\/a><\/span> to ask our leaders to do their part.\u00a0 It will take change at both the local and national level to ensure our communities make a positive impact on our health.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does the data reveal about America\u2019s health? The U.S. doesn\u2019t have the top health care system \u2013 we have a great \u201csick care\u201d system. We have great doctors, state-of-the-art hospitals and we\u2019re leaders in advanced procedures and pharmaceuticals. But &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/monday-raising-the-grade\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-15R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4209,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4207\/revisions\/4209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}