NASHVILLE, Tenn. (May 18, 2018) – ThinkTennessee’s State of Our State dashboard provides an at-a-glance look at how Tennessee ranks nationally across 100 different indicators. Yet, these rankings tell only part of the story. ThinkTennessee is launching a series of policy briefs that will be released periodically to dive a little deeper into Tennessee’s standings on each of the 11 topics of the State of Our State dashboard. These policy briefs are aimed at providing key information to understand how our state stacks up, where we’re leading the way and where we’re falling behind. They also provide important lessons about policies and programs implemented in other states and recommendations for how Tennessee can take steps forward.
The first policy brief, developed in partnership with Healthy Tennessee, addresses chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. In each of these categories, Tennessee ranks near the bottom compared to adults in other states. This brief summarizes the scope of chronic disease in our state and highlights ways we can reduce the economic costs of chronic disease by promoting policies that facilitate physical activity and healthy food choices among Tennesseans.
You can find the full brief here and the complete State of Our State dashboard, including all 100 rankings, here.
