W.Va. flunks women’s health study

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia ranks near the bottom nationally in obesity, smoking and diabetes, and has made limited strides to improve health-care policies, according to a national report that grades each state on various women’s health issues.

West Virginia ranked 47 out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., and was among 12 states given a failing grade in the report titled “Making the Grade on Women’s Health: a National and State-by-State Report Card.” The report comes from the Office of Women’s Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was updated by the National Women’s Law Center.

The state ranked last nationally in the percentage of women who are not physically active, a ranking that has gotten worse over the past three years.

In 2010, 36.8 percent of women had no leisure time and were not physically active, an increase from 31.3 percent in 2007.

“The magic bullet is being physically active,” said Jessica Wright, director of the state Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease.

Exercise and a healthy diet are simple and effect ways to reduce the rate of chronic disease and improve a person’s general health, Wright said.

“When it come to eating fruits and vegetables, West Virginia ranks so low that it’s embarrassing,” Wright said.

The number of women eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day decreased from 22.9 percent in 2007 to 18.8 percent in 2010, ranking the state 48th in the nation.

The state and individual communities have done better at teaching residents how to eat well and encouraging residents to become more active, but they still has a long way to go, Wright said.

“When trying to address chronic disease as a whole, I don’t know if we will ever get enough programs out there that will really help improve our health,” Wright said. “West Virginia gets a lot of funding, but not enough to show incredible gains in the health across the state.”

West Virginia also has the nation’s highest rate of women with diabetes at about 13 percent, an increase from about 11 percent in 2007.

About 33 percent of West Virginia women are obese, an increase from 30.2 percent in 2007. The number of women with high blood pressure increased from 31.6 percent in 2007 to 36.3 percent in 2010.

U.S. Women Lag in Achieving Health Goals

December 15, 2010 – A new report finds that although fewer American women are dying of heart disease, stroke, and breast and lung cancer, and fewer are smoking, women as a group are not meeting most of the health goals set for them by the federal government. Obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes are on the rise among women and fewer are being screened regularly for cervical cancer, for example, according the report by the National Women’s Law Center and Oregon Health Sciences University.

Several of the report’s findings echo a recent Institute of Medicine study that provided a progress report on women’s health research. Researchers’ efforts to boost study of women’s health over the last two decades has lessened the burden of disease and reduced deaths among women due to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and cervical cancer, the IOM study said. Less progress, although still significant, has been made in reducing the effects of depression, HIV/AIDS, and osteoporosis on women. However, several health issues important to women have seen little progress, including unintended pregnancy, autoimmune diseases, alcohol and drug addiction, lung cancer, and dementia. Overall, fewer gains have been made on chronic and debilitating conditions that have lower death rates but cause significant suffering, pointing to the need for researchers to give similar consideration to quality of life as to mortality.

Women’s Health in the U.S. Fails to Make the Grade

Women’s health initiatives in America are largely failing, according to the latest report card released by the National Women’s Law Center and Oregon Health and Science University.
Overall, the nation received a grade of Unsatisfactory, with 23 of the 26 goals outlined in the government’s Healthy People 2010 initiative — a decade-long effort to monitor the progress of the nation’s health objectives — remaining unmet.

This is the fifth and final report card for the decade, and its findings uncovered some troubling trends about the state of women’s health. Most notably, more women report binge drinking and fewer report being screened for cervical cancer than in 2007. On these two important indicators, the nation’s grade dropped to an F: the percentage of women who reported consuming five or more drinks at a time in the past month jumped more than 3% since 2007, to 10.6%, while the percentage of women who received annual pap smears dropped nearly 10% to 78% over the same time period. (More on Time.com: Health Check-Up: Women & Health)

Additionally, more women reported obesity, hypertension and diabetes than in 2007. And more have tested positive for chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that can cause infertility.

State-by-state findings reveal similar trends. Massachusetts and Vermont received the highest grades with an S- (Satisfactory minus), while 37 states scored a U (Unsatisfactory) and 12 states failed. Louisiana and Mississippi came in 50th and 51st, respectively. No states received the highest possible score of S, or satisfactory.

Dr. Michelle Berlin, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine and associate director of the university’s Center for Women’s Health, told the New York Times that the findings were disappointing, given the length and comprehensiveness of the study. “The takeaway message is that we’re really not where we should be,” she said. (More on Time.com: Photos: A Brief History of Women in Power)

But despite this dismal picture, progress has been made in a few areas. One indicator — cholesterol screening — received a higher grade than in the previous report, moving from a U to an S-. Three benchmarks of the Healthy People 2010 initiative were met, including the percentage of women receiving regular mammograms, visiting the dentist and screening for colorectal cancer. Also notable is that the rate of smoking among women declined in 42 states, making that one of the most improved health status indicators.

The hope is that the passage of President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will help raise these grades over the next decade and help the country meet goals set by Healthy People 2020. The health-care act includes a significant focus on women’s health, including an expansion in Medicaid eligibility, that could prompt improvements on issues that have so far failed to be addressed. However, many of the services won’t go into effect until 2014, leaving women’s health in a state of uncertainty for at least a few more years.