Indiana’s lagging health marks in smoking, chronic disease and air pollution don’t help when it comes to battling COVID-19, experts say.
“Unfortunately, Indiana has distinguished itself” with a high COVID-19 mortality rate, said Thomas Duszynski, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health’s director of epidemiology education at IUPUI. “We’re well above the national average, which is not a good place to be.”
There are some positive signs.
Indiana COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations are falling, down from recent all-time highs. A vaccine is slowly rolling out, with registration soon opening to residents 65 and older, possibly within days, state health officials said recently. Right now, Indiana leads neighboring states in per capita COVID-19 vaccinations as 6.7% of residents already have one dose and 1.4% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, it ranks third in the Great Lakes with 145 deaths per 100,000 people, behind Illinois and Michigan, according to the CDC. The U.S., with more than 420,000 dead, has averaged 127 deaths per 100,000.
Its public health rating has slid in recent decades.
Indiana ranked 41st in 2019, down steadily from 30th in 1990, according America's Health Rankings, an annual report released for more than 30 years by the United Health Foundation. Specifically, it ranked 36th in health outcomes with higher rates of high blood pressure and obesity.
Its residents were also more likely to have three or more chronic conditions, 11.7%, compared to 9.5% in the U.S., it said. Those included arthritis, asthma, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, stroke, cancer, depression or diabetes. Except for arthritis and depression, most are linked to more severe physical COVID-19 conditions.
Indiana also ranked poorly in other factors tied to the pandemic -- 48th in public health funding, 41st in smoking, 38th in premature death under 75, and 46th in fine-particle air pollution. Before the pandemic, Indiana had made good strides on reducing households under the poverty line, adults who avoided health care due to costs and boosting those who exercised regularly, it said.
The American Lung Association has unsuccessfully lobbied Indiana in recent years to hike cigarette taxes, ban flavored tobacco used in vaping and prohibit smoking in grandfathered bars, taverns and casinos.
“We’re a state that prides ourselves in being competitive,” said Nick Torres, the group’s advocacy director. “We haven’t remained competitive when it comes to things like public health.
“We rank poorly in these health outcomes,” he said. “We know how to be a healthy state, we just have to do it.”
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