As a country, it’s no secret we’re not doing well in the health department. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and one in 10 have two or more.
A chronic disease is defined as one that lasts for a year or more, requires daily medicine and/or can negatively impact your life.
That said, some states are healthier than others. Forbes Advisor crunched the data to determine West Virginia is the unhealthiest state in the Union.
The magazine’s experts pored over data concerning not just disease statistics, but also information concerning the rates of substance abuse, residents’ lifestyle habits and their health outlook, and the Mountain State ranked at the top of the hill for unhealthiness.
By contrast, Hawaii had the healthiest residents.
Interestingly, five of the top 10 healthiest states were far away from the 50th state: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York.
Meanwhile, eight of the 10 least healthy states were located in the south: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia.
If we don’t get our act together and fast, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology says chronic disease in this country is only going to get worse: The rate of Americans with diabetes will jump close to 40%, hypertension by more than 27%, and obesity rates will swell to 18.3%.