Poll finds Minnesota No. 5 in health, happiness

Article by: CHEN MAY YEE , Star Tribune
Updated: March 11, 2009 - 11:26 AM

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Minnesota ranks fifth in the country for health and happiness, according to a new Gallup poll. Only Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming and Colorado scored higher in the new well-being index, which was created by the Gallup Organization and Healthways Inc., a Tennessee-based disease-management company with a major operation in Eagan.

Minnesota tends to rank highly in national health rankings, though not as highly as it used to.

The new poll goes further than most surveys, asking respondents -- 1,000 a day around the country -- questions to gauge their emotional and physical health and economic states.

"This isn't just a happiness survey," said Todd Hastings, a senior director at Healthways.

Pollsters ask a minimum of 42 questions in about 15 minutes. Answers fall into six categories.

For example, for the first category -- ''life evaluation'' -- respondents are asked to imagine a ladder with 10 steps with "worst possible life" at the bottom and "best possible life" on top. Minnesotans didn't score as well there, coming in 23rd nationally.

Although Minnesota ranked first out of 50 states for physical health, it ranked 19th for healthy behavior, for reasons researchers said they had yet to analyze. One researcher speculated that Minnesota respondents may have been younger, so even if they weren't exercising and eating well, they nevertheless were healthy.

Minnesota also ranked well in "basic access,'' which includes subjects such as access to medical care, healthy food, quality housing and safe neighborhoods.

Gallup and Healthways began the polling in January 2008 and have released limited results. This is the first time they've ranked the states, based on all 355,000 interviews done throughout 2008.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the health insurance industry's trade group, also sponsored Tuesday's announcement.

Chen May Yee • 612-6737434

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Overall well-being: 5thPhysical health: 1stEmotional health: 4th (Hawaii was 1st)Life evaluation: 23rd (Hawaii was 1st)Work quality: 17th (Utah was...