2022 Healthy Aging Index

Research estimating the impact of socio-economic and lifestyle factors on healthy aging across the US population. This study indexes the US states by looking at five core pillars that define healthy aging: demographics, economics, behavioral aspects, healthcare, and mental health.

Within the context of this study, healthy aging refers to the process of making lifestyle choices that promote health, well-being, and long-term independence, ensuring a better quality of life in older age.

5 highest-ranking states for healthy aging

The final results were calculated by looking at 25 interrelated variables that underpin the five core pillars of healthy aging. The final state ranking was determined by calculating the sum of the state subscores. The higher the state index score, the higher the level of healthy aging compared to other states.

1st

70.98734108 index

Utah

2nd

69.20669528 index

Colorado

3rd

67.89411799 index

Massachusetts

4th

66.75851549 index

Connecticut

5th

65.85698768 index

Minessota

5 lowest-ranking states for healthy aging

50th

28.13658177 index

Mississippi

49th

31.43897881 index

West Virginia

48th

34.8893258 index

Louisiana

47th

36.33067638 index

Kentucky

46th

36.76318149 index

Alabama

Life expectancy and healthy aging in the US

Despite spending the most on healthcare in the world, the United States falls well behind other world leaders in life expectancy rankings. After a historic drop in 2020, life expectancy in the US took another alarming hit in 2021, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And while life expectancy in other high-income countries has since increased, the overall life expectancy for the US population fell by almost 3 years (down to 76.1 years).

The blame for such poor rankings often falls on the US medical system. However, such measures also depend on a variety of socio-economic and behavioral factors that affect an individual’s health – diet, exercise, smoking, poverty, obesity, compliance with medical protocols, and many others. Up to date, multiple studies have, in fact, shown that a low-risk lifestyle can prolong life expectancy – and that most of these additional years of life are spent in good health.

As one of the leading health and wellness platforms in the industry – driven by the mission to help people lead healthier, longer, and more active lives – DoFasting was inspired to conduct its own study on healthy aging in the US.

The 2022 Healthy Aging Index is the first iteration of the study, aiming to highlight specific improvements that individual states could make to support a healthy aging population.

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Methodology

The 2022 Healthy Aging Index is calculated in terms of five fundamental pillars: demographics, economics, behavioral aspects, healthcare, and mental health. Underpinning these pillars are 25 indicators (5 per pillar) that are interrelated and work together to provide an overall measure of healthy aging across the 50 US states.

5 pillars of The Healthy Aging Index

Demographics

Education

Crime rate

Retirement age

Newborn mortality

Fertility

Behavior

Alcohol consumption

Smoking

Regular exercise

Physical inactivity

Diet

Economics

Income

Expenditure on chronic disease

Healthcare cost

Poverty level

Personal consumption expenditure

Healthcare

Sanitation and water supply

Healthcare availability

Obesity

Diabetes

Hypertension

Mental health

Marriage rate

Divorce rate

Loneliness

Mental well-being

Suicide rate

Each factor consists of one or more indicators that were scored and averaged. The equation for scoring is as follows:

For columns where a low value is better, the score is inverted such that a high score is always better:

Obtained z score dataset is normalized to a [0–4] scale, with 4 being the best score. Therefore, the higher the score, the better the state ranks compared to the other states.

The formula to normalize the data is min-max normalization:

The final score was determined by calculating the sum of the state subscores:

2022 Healthy Aging Index by state

Ranking

State

Index

1.

Utah

70.98734108

2.

Colorado

69.20669528

3.

Massachusetts

67.89411799

4.

Connecticut

66.75851549

5.

Minessota

65.85698768

6.

New Jersey

65.83064331

7.

California

64.88715143

8.

Washington

64.67749801

9.

Hawaii

61.81247468

10.

New York

60.39197479

11.

Virginia

60.35373018

12.

Maryland

59.98313624

13.

New Hampshire

59.23741727

14.

Nebraska

59.17381633

15.

Illinois

58.53671458

16.

Montana

58.04608236

17.

Idaho

57.66374059

18.

Oregon

57.6050361

19.

Vermont

57.14268857

20.

Alaska

56.92714007

21.

North Dakota

56.71813241

22.

Wisconsin

56.60784396

23.

Iowa

55.86838679

24.

Wyoming

54.4946877

25.

Rhode Island

54.38957817

26.

Maine

53.11236022

27.

Kansas

52.76903349

28.

Pennsylvania

52.15067948

29.

Delaware

51.34227081

30.

Florida

51.18220054

31.

Arizona

51.12254457

32.

South Dakota

49.83738138

33.

Texas

49.33329333

34.

Georgia

48.76147942

35.

North Carolina

48.36760667

36.

Ohio

47.46165445

37.

Indiana

46.32702336

38.

Missouri

45.86897505

39.

Nevada

44.23218436

40.

Michigan

43.9167915

41.

South Carolina

43.28415422

42.

New Mexico

41.77675409

43.

Oklahoma

41.48357666

44.

Tennessee

39.75029417

45.

Arkansas

37.17136134

46.

Alabama

36.76318149

47.

Kentucky

36.33067638

48.

Louisiana

34.8893258

49.

West Virginia

31.43897881

50.

Mississippi

28.13658177

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