The world is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effect it's had on individuals' quality of life has yet to improve — and it varies by state.
Wellness platforms DoFasting and Kilo Health recently released their 2022 Healthy Aging Index Report, which analyzed individuals' quality of life across all 50 states. The report takes into account five key metrics in its ranking system: demographics, economics, behavioral aspects, healthcare and mental health. The index looked at accessibility to healthcare, crime rates, education, divorce rates and more in order to accurately portray the total health of an individual's lifespan. Once tallied, states are scored out of 100.
Read more:
Mississippi came in last place with a score of just 28.13 out of 100, due to poor results in areas of obesity, poverty, regular exercise, newborn mortality rates and income levels. On the other end of the spectrum, Utah ranked highest, with a healthy aging index of 70.98. The state outranked almost all others in accessibility to different forms of healthcare, as well as boasting a good income rate per-capita.
"These results would suggest that the state of Mississippi has many social and demographic health indicators to consider and re-evaluate," said Supriya Lal, health adviser at DoFasting, in a release. "While there are multiple contributors at play, social determinants of health can be strengthened through effective public health outreach and measures."
Find out which states made Kilo Health and DoFasting's list for the best and worst states for healthy aging:
