How healthy is NJ? Too few primary care providers, according to a study

Tamara Walker, Asbury Park Press

How healthy is New Jersey? The United Health Foundation ranked it No. 13 among U.S. states.

But the UHF study, America’s Health Rankings 2023 Annual Report just released, pointed to a few challenges, including a low number of primary care physicians. In fact, the Garden State ranked 49th for access to primary care providers. There are 181 providers per 100,000 people, while the national rate is 232.

Other challenges were:

  • Low volunteerism rate

  • Low prevalence of colorectal cancer screening

Nationally, the report shows eight chronic conditions have reached the highest prevalence in the report’s history: arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression and diabetes.

United Health Foundation highlights improvements, challenges, and disparities in the health and well-being of Americans across all 50 states.

The recent data used for the report is from Oct. 30, 2023 and was determined from 87 measures and 49 rankings that included social economical factors, physical environment, and clinical care, behaviors and health outcome.

More: COVID-19 cases expected to rise, NJ health officials say

What are NJ's strengths:

• Low prevalence of frequent mental distress• Low prevalence of multiple chronic conditions• Low household food insecurity

Other key takeaways for NJ:

• 24% increase in homicides from 3.4 to 4.2 deaths per 100,000 population between 2018-2019 and 2020-2021.• 13% increase in housing cost burden from 36.1% to 40.7% of households between 2019 and 2022• 10% decrease in premature death from 7,759 to 7,013 years lost before age 75 per 100,000 population between 2020 and 2021.• Low prevalence of frequent mental distress; the state ranked fifth in the nation for this measure.• Low household food insecurity with 8.8% of households unable to provide adequate food for one or more household members due to lack of resources (compared to 11.2% nationally)

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Here is how NJ ranked in new report

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