Iowa's health report card is out and, wouldn't you know, it's been a tuff year. Some not so good... things are on the rise. There are places we've made improvements, but overall... well, it's been a tuff year like I said.

Iowa's health report card

The report is written like a true government report: wordy and hard to follow so, I'll help break it down as simply as possible. The report uses the term "measures" as a way of looking at areas we can improve on healthwise. Unfortunately, Iowa lost ground on 95 of the 250 plus measures in the report. Also, while I made reference to last year being hard, the report actually began in 2017 and wrapped up in July of this year.

There's some decent news tucked into the report. It's not all bad, I promise. In fact, let's start with the good, shall we?

GOOD NEWS

  • Death rates caused by cancer and by heart disease have decreased.
  • Food insecurity was dropping nicely... until COVID. But, there's hope we can get back to food insecurity being less of an issue in the near future.

Then, there's the less rosy news...

BAD NEWS

  • Sexually transmitted disease rates are up... Like, a lot. Gonorrhea is up 85%. WOW...
  • Obesity is up as well.
  • Sadly, suicide rates have also increased.

While the report spans roughly four years, it's revised yearly. COVID is a likely reason some of the negatives are up. Obesity and suicide rates seem to be tied in, and food insecurity is certainly on the rise again due to the pandemic.

If you want to know how you're doing, you can take Iowa's health assessment survey.

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