The United Health Foundation released its 11th edition of the America’s Health Rankings Senior Report today.
Rhonda Randall, the chief medical officer for United Healthcare, explained that this report is released annually in May and looks at 52 measures of health of older Americans.
In this year’s report, Utah is ranked number one in the health of its seniors, for the second year in a row.
“Let's start with some of the really good news: Utah has the number one rate of volunteerism — among seniors in the nation, you're two times more than the U.S. average. You have one of the lowest rates of poverty in the United States; you're ranked number four for that measure," Randall said.
Randall explained that each state has its successes and challenges and that they are ranked in relativity to one another.
“The thing that I'm most concerned about when I look at Utah's data is you had an 80% increase in drug deaths among seniors over the past decade. That's really concerning," Randall said. "And it worries me that it could bring your rank down in the future if something's not done to reverse that trend.”
In Utah, there was a 42% increase in the number of older adults who regularly feel mental distress and there is a low geriatric provider rate compared to other states.
Randall said the biggest takeaway from this report is how much of a treasure older Americans are to our communities and how important it is for them to stay socially connected and physically active.
According to Randall, this report can be used to bring attention to what seniors in each state need, and it gives people the opportunity to improve those things.
“I would say for me, a couple of highlights are keep doing the great things that Utah is doing around high levels of volunteerism, and some of those good choices like not smoking, not drinking into the senior years," Randal said. "But you’ve just got to really pay attention to some of the things around behavioral health, frequent mental distress, high suicide rates and increases in drug deaths.”
