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News Regional & State News State receives middling marks on health report card
Sunday, 11 December 2011 09:15

State receives middling marks on health report card

Written by  Stephanie Reighart and Radio Pennsylvania

(Minnetonka, MN) -- Pennsylvania ranks in the middle of the pack in an annual national report card on the health of the nation. America's Health Rankings for 2011 puts the commonwealth 26th, up a spot from last year. Doctor Rhonda Randall is the United Health Foundation's Medical Director for America's Health Rankings. She says the state does have some strengths. "You have a very high rate of high school graduations, so 83 percent of your incoming ninth graders are graduating from high school," she says. "You have a low rate of uninsured [individuals.] Eleven percent of the population is without health insurance, so you're ranked eighth there. You have a good availability of primary care physicians. You were ranked 13th in the nation." Among the challenges, Randall says, is an obesity problem with more than 10 percent of the state's adult population self-reporting themselves as obese. Also, an additional 134,000 more Pennsylvanians were diagnosed with diabetes in the last year.

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