Several Factors Make This City the Least Healthy in Louisiana
Louisiana as a whole has a high rate of obesity, but that's not what makes this city less than healthy.
I'm willing to be that many people make an effort to live healthier lives in the new year. For me, I want to tackle my habit of celebrating or comforting myself with food. This usually leads to overeating and consuming too many calories/sugar and ultimately leaves me feeling terrible. That's one small change that I can make to be healthier.
For Hammond, Louisiana it's going to take a little more.
According to MSN.com, Hammond is the least healthy city in our state. The website looks a unhealthy variables like smoking, obesity, premature death and even being uninsured to compile their list of the Least Healthy City in Every State. Louisiana collectively has the third highest obesity rate in the country and Hammond has the highest in the all of Louisiana. Couple that with a smoking rate that is higher than the national average and we start to see why they were named the least healthy.
Here are Hammond's numbers in each category measured by MSN:
Premature Death Rate: 489 per 100,000 residents
Adult Obesity Rate: 39.1%
Uninsured Rate 14.1%
Adult Smoking Rate: 21.5%