Healthy North Carolina Report Outlines Health Goals For Next Decade

The Healthy North Carolina report has been issued every 10 years since 1990. It uses various indicators to guide state efforts to improve well-being.

Dr. Adam Zolotor is president and CEO of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and a partner on the project. He says there's been a shift in discussions surrounding health in both the U.S. and around the world.  

And that's why the report includes things like incarceration rates, severe housing problems, and access to exercise opportunities.

“Clinical care, where we've traditionally invested the bulk of our resources, probably only accounts for 10 to 20 percent of overall health, whereas some of these other determinants of health — social and economic circumstances, health behavior, and environmental factors — contribute to a much greater proportion of health,” he says.

The data for Healthy North Carolina 2030 was compiled from a variety of publicly available sources including the census bureau and health surveys.

North Carolina ranked 36th in the country for overall health in 2019.