Tennessee Men's Health Report Card
The 2012 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card provides state-based data on the health status of more than 3 million adult men in the state of Tennessee to national benchmarks for health improvement established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their Healthy People 2020 report. This year’s report indicates that some progress has been made, but there remains still room for improvement and there are also areas where significant negative trends signal concern. Improvements were seen in a decrease in the number of adult men smoking cigarettes, but tobacco use rates remain significantly higher than national targets and death rates from smoking related cancers (lung, head and neck) are two times higher than the Healthy People 2020 goals. Death rates from ischemic heart disease (which restricts blood flow to the heart) are down, but heart diseases overall remain the leading cause of death among men over age 65 in our state. Men also report higher rates of seeking screening for high cholesterol levels and receiving annual flu shots that are close to national goals. Men in our state also continue to receive overall failing grades for deaths from cancer, stroke, liver disease, motor vehicle accidents, AIDS, homicide, unintentional injury, and suicide. Obesity rates continue to increase, with the percentage of men who are obese (31%) exceeding the percentage of men who report being a healthy weight (27%), with nearly 42% of men being in the overweight category. Because obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and many types of cancers, this trend is alarming for the future health of our state. Rates of new cases of preventable infectious illness, such as HIV and syphilis are also alarmingly high. Racial disparities persist in many death and disease categories, and also indicators of social conditions which impact health status, such as poverty, education, and health insurance coverage. We invite you to download and explore the report card and discuss what it means to you, your family, your work, your community. Improving these indictors will depend not only on individuals making healthier choices, but also on efforts by the health care community to focus on primary prevention, and on policy makers to strengthen their support of access to quality medical and mental health care, healthier food choices, and opportunities for safe and active lifestyles.
Read more about the Tennessee Men´s Health Report Card in the news. and to our Scientific Advisory Panel.
Please fill out our feedback survey here. For more information on men´s health please visit the following resources*: Organizations Supporting Men’s Health in Tennessee Tennessee Men´s Health Report Card 2010
*This is not intended to be an exclusive listing of all the organizations working toward improving men’s health in our state and we hope to add to it as we learn of work being done across the state. If you know of an organization that should be added to the list, please contact us at tnmenshealthreportcard@vanderbilt.edu.
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