Report: Ohio 31st for senior health

A new national report ranks Ohio 31st for the overall health of its seniors for the second consecutive year (Source: “Ohio is 31st in health of its seniors,” Columbus Dispatch, May 21, 2014).

The second annual America’s Health Rankings Senior Report, which evaluated data from all 50 states, says that too many older Ohioans do not get enough physical activity. The percentage of high-quality nursing homes in the state is low, at 41 percent, and the rate of preventable hospitalizations is high, at 78 for every 1,000 discharges.

But to Ohio’s credit, the percentage of hospital deaths among seniors is low, at nearly 21 percent, and the percentage of seniors with prescription-drug coverage is high, at 88 percent. Few aging Ohioans suffer from activity-limiting arthritis pain, the report found.