Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. U.S. News & World Report recently issued its latest “Best States” rankings, and Indiana comes in at #33. Of the eight categories measured to calculate this ranking, Indiana’s outcomes in Health Care (#40) and Quality of Life (#48) are the biggest drag on our state’s performance. When it comes to assessing our public health outcomes, Indiana fares worst on the following key metrics: infant mortality (#42), smoking (#41) and obesity (#40). A closer look at the infant mortality rate shows that key drivers of infant mortality – defined as the death of a child under one year […]

Indiana stands at the height of a twin addiction epidemic fueled by the rise of opioids and stubbornly persistent tobacco use in our state. Today more Hoosiers die from drug overdoses than auto accidents each year. The death toll from smoking equates to more than two fatal 747 airplane crashes each month. And we’re outpacing other states in our abuse of opioids and tobacco, ranking among the nation’s worst for the number of drug overdose deaths and percentage of residents who smoke. These findings were captured in two reports released by the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. They should provide a wake-up call to action. Consider some other key findings of […]