With a city as big and loud as New York City as it's epicenter, you might not expect New York to rank that high in a study on healthiest states for seniors to live.
However, according to United Health Foundation's annual report dubbed America's Health Rankings Senior Report, the Empire State came in a very respectable 15 out of the country's 50 states.
Among the many strengths listed as reason for New York's high ranking the report were very low prevalence's of obesity (one of the lowers in the nation at 23.6 percent) and smoking; high per capita public health funding; and ready availability of primary care physicians and dentists
Despite the fact seniors typically head south after they retire to enjoy the warmer temperatures and perhaps sharpen their golf game, the northern most U.S. states mostly came out on top in a new study on the healthiest states for seniors.
Among the concerns that kept New York from moving higher in the ranking were low rate of high school graduation; a high percentage of children in poverty; and low immunization coverage among children.
The research for the United Health Foundation report is based on 34 measures of senior health, including dental care, physical activity, availability of home healthcare workers, food security, prescription drug coverage, volunteerism, quality of nursing homes and flu shots. The data was gathered with the help of more than a dozen government agencies and private research organizations.
The top five ranking states were Minnesota, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, in that order. As for the bottom five states for those golden years: Mississippi was the unhealthiest in the report coming in at number 50, followed by Louisiana (49), Kentucky (48), Oklahoma (47) and Arkansas (46).
