Division of Population Health

The State-by-State Report Card
on Healthy Aging
This section presents the State-by-State Report Card on Healthy Aging, which includes data on adults
aged 65 years or older for all 50 states and D.C. Table 2 presents data for the highest and lowest
ranked states and the number of states that met the Healthy People 2020 targets for older adults, where
appropriate. For most indicators, the BRFSS is not the official data source for tracking Healthy People 2020
targets. Some of these targets are for all adults aged 18 years or older, not just those aged 65 or older. For
this report, we use BRFSS data to report how well states are doing in meeting Healthy People 2020 targets
for their older adult populations. A detailed description of each indicator follows the report card, and a
full description of the Healthy People 2020 targets is in the Appendix.
Table 3 presents the most current data for each indicator by state and assigns a score to each state
according to its performance relative to the other states.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
There is considerable variation among the states for each indicator, and mixed progress has been made
since The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 was released. For example,
No states have met all targets.
All states met the targets for obesity, taking medications for high blood pressure, and mammography
within past 2 years.
No states met the targets for flu or pneumonia vaccinations.
Variation among states can be significant. For example, in Utah and Connecticut, 70.9% of older adults have
retained most of their natural teeth, whereas in West Virginia, this is true for only 33.4% of older adults.
The State of Aging and Health in America 2013 PAGE 27