NEWS RELEASE
February 14, 2000

Haveman Announces Improving Health Indicators

Michigan Department of Community Health Director James K. Haveman, Jr. today announced that long-term health trends in Michigan continue to show significant improvements. Over the last 10 years, Michigan has seen reductions in deaths due to cancer, heart disease, and suicide and also seen declining teen pregnancy rates and improvements in childhood immunizations. These health facts were released on the Internet today in the web-based Critical Health Indicators report.

"Overall, Michigan continues to move in the right direction," said Haveman. "To see continued improvement for cancer, teen pregnancy, and immunizations is outstanding news. We will continue to focus on improving the health of our children and families.

"The Critical Health Indicators report is an important tool for us to use in our efforts to improve the health of Michigan residents," said Haveman. "The indicators emphasize the importance of focusing on outcomes to measure health improvement."

The report shows improvements in several indicators focusing on Michigan's children and adolescents, such as childhood immunizations, infant deaths, abortions and teen pregnancies. Childhood immunization levels for two-year-olds have continued to increase from 42 percent in 1991 to 79 percent in 1998. There were 554 fewer infant deaths in 1998 than in 1989. Induced abortions among Michigan women have declined nearly 23 percent over the past 10 years. Teen pregnancy rates have also declined more than 27 percent from the peak rate of 98.5 per 1,000 females 15-19 years old in 1990 to a rate of 71.6 in 1998. This translates into 9,632 fewer pregnancies among females ages 15-19 years-old.

Michigan has also seen success in providing health insurance to thousands of Michigan's children through the MIChild and Healthy Kids initiatives. Since statewide enrollment began last year, MIChild has grown to cover 13,334 children as of January 1, 2000. An estimated 51,701 children were enrolled in Healthy Kids over the same period of time as a result of MIChild outreach.

The report shows declines in some of Michigan's leading causes of deaths including the top two – heart disease and cancer. Heart disease deaths have declined 19 percent over the past 10 years, from a rate of 170.7 per 100,000 residents in 1989 to 137.9 in 1998. Cancer deaths have shown a continuous decline over the past eight years, from a rate of 139.5 per 100,000 residents in 1991 to 125.3 in 1998. AIDS deaths have continued a three-year decline since the peak in 1995 with a rate of 7.9 per 100,000 residents to 2.5 in 1998. In addition, improvements have been seen in unintentional injury deaths, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis deaths, alcohol-induced deaths, homicides and suicides.

Overweight has been increasing in both the United States and Michigan. The percentage of Michigan's adult population that is overweight has been steadily increasing from 23.5 percent in 1988 to 34.5 percent in 1997. Obesity has been linked to several serious medical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. It is also associated with higher rates of certain types of cancer.

The Department of Community Health is actively working to decrease the proportion of Michigan residents who are overweight by offering educational programs that address nutrition and physical activity. In cooperation with the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports and the Michigan Fitness Foundation, the department has sponsored the development and distribution of a model physical education curriculum for Michigan schools encouraging lifelong physical activity.

The 5-A-Day for Better Health Program works with local communities to promote fruit and vegetable consumption. The Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program provides programs in communities, schools, work sites and churches that focus on healthy eating and physical activity. These initiatives are also being implemented at local senior centers throughout the state.

The report is available at www.mdch.state.mi.us/dch/chi.