Colorado seniors are the fourth-healthiest in the nation, according to new rankings
Colorado’s seniors are the fourth-healthiest in the nation, thanks to high levels of physical activity and low levels of obesity, according to new rankings released this week by the United Health Foundation.
“Colorado is one of the states that we look to for what’s going well,” said Dr. Rhonda Randall, the chief medical officer for the insurer United Healthcare’s Retiree Solutions unit. United Healthcare created the foundation, which is a not-for-profit organization, in 1999.
The report, which is now in its fifth year, looked at the health of people ages 65 and older across the country, using federal and other data sources. Researchers found that Colorado ranks third for the amount of its seniors who are physically active and also scored well at measures for preventing hospital deaths, premature deaths, hospital re-admissions and unnecessary hospitalizations. The state has the second-lowest obesity rate in the country for seniors, at 20 percent.
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Ron Wacker, 73, of Centennial, lifts weights at the Lone Tree Recreation Center in this 2012 file photo. Colorado’s seniors were ranked fourth-healthiest in the nation in a recent report. (Lindsay Pierce, Denver Post file)
Ron Wacker, 73, of Centennial, lifts weights at the Lone Tree Recreation Center in this 2012 file photo. Colorado’s seniors were ranked fourth-healthiest in the nation in a recent report. (Lindsay Pierce, Denver Post file)