Profiles in Health
Each state has been affected differently by the coronavirus pandemic, and for countless reasons. But to help paint a fuller picture of the situation when COVID-19 erupted, we dug into data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detailing the overall health profile of each state's population. In particular, we looked at some of the key factors the CDC suggests put individuals at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus: chronic lung disease; diabetes; serious heart conditions; kidney disease; liver disease; and severe obesity. Here's a snapshot of how healthy each state was preceding the pandemic, based on 2018 data from the CDC for each of these key health issues.
Note: Figures are for the number of deaths per 100,000 people for each health condition, except in the case of obesity, which is presented as a percentage of state population.
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