Report shows smoking rate fueling diseases

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana's traditionally high smoking rate is fueling diseases that are keeping it in the middle of the pack of the 50 states in terms of overall health, a report released Monday showed.\nThe latest assessment of the nation's health, by the nonprofit United Health Foundation, ranked Indiana 27th among the states this year, one spot worse than a year ago.\nState epidemiologist Robert Teclaw said that with more than a quarter of all Hoosiers smoking cigarettes, that unhealthy habit was helping cause Indiana's elevated rates of both heart disease and cancer.\nThe state's high obesity rate -- something not measured by the report but which other studies have warned of -- also contributes to those illnesses, Teclaw said.\n"We're about where you would expect a state that has a high smoking rate and a high level of obesity," Teclaw said. "These are problems that have developed over many years and they won't be easily solved."\nIndiana's overall ranking in the report, 27th among the 50 states, is less important than how the state fared in the 17 categories used to determine the rankings, he said.\nThe report found that 27.6 percent of adults in Indiana were smokers in 2002, ranking it among the five states with the highest percentage of adults who smoke. The national average was 22.5 percent.\nIn 2001, 27.4 percent of Indiana adults were smokers; in 1990, the state had a 32.8 percent adult smoking rate.\nThe report also found that in 2002 Indiana residents had a 9 percent higher risk of heart disease than the national average. Last year, the state had 283.1 deaths per 100,000 residents from heart disease. The national average was 268.7 such deaths per 100,000 people.\nIndiana's cancer death rate, meanwhile, was 221.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 2002, compared with the national average of 205.3 deaths for the same measure. Last year's 221.9 deaths per 100,000 was down from 224.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2001, but up from 1990's rate of 209.9 cancer deaths.\nMonday's report also found some good news for Indiana.\nThe state's motor vehicle fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles driven in 2002 was 1.1 deaths -- fifth lowest in the nation. That was down from 1.3 deaths for the same measure in 2001 and 2.5 such deaths in 1990.\nThe state also has a low child poverty rate, with 11.3 percent of Hoosier children living in poverty last year, compared with the national average of 16.3 percent.\nIndiana's child poverty rate was down nearly 10 percentage points since 1990, when 20.8 percent of Hoosier children lived in poverty.\nThe yearly rankings are based on a variety of factors such as smoking, motor vehicle deaths, high school graduation rates, children in poverty, access to care, disabilities and incidence of preventable disease.\nThe report is based on data from the U.S. Departments of Health, Commerce, Education and Labor, the National Safety Council and the National Association of State Budget Officers.