The Health of the States (HOTS) project is a detailed analysis of state rankings on 39 health outcomes, and correlations between those health outcomes and 123 determinants of health spanning five domains: health care, health behaviors, social and economic factors, the physical and social environment, and public policies and spending. The project was conducted by the Urban Institute in partnership with the Center on Society and Health at VCU and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The work is unprecedented in its breadth and depth – offering a more comprehensive and layered picture of health in every state than any resource to date. The Summary Report details how states rank on each of 39 health outcomes, allowing each state to see where it is doing well and which diseases deserve greater priority. Perhaps more importantly, readers can also explore the conditions that best correlate with better health.
The series of reports offer a detailed examination of a wide range of drivers of health, looking extensively at health care conditions and health behaviors—such as tobacco use and physical activity—while also studying physical and social conditions in neighborhoods that influence behaviors and health (such as walkability or residential segregation), socioeconomic factors ranging from education and income to incarceration and food insecurity, and per capita spending by states on income support, education, and infrastructure.
Population of focus: Researchers, administrators, policy makers
Links to resource:
- Health of the States: How U.S. States Compare in Health Status and the Factors that Shape Health (pdf)
- Abstract of report
Date: 2016
Organization: Urban Institute