Under Rounds, Daugaard South Dakota older, fatter, drunker

Sometimes the blog just writes itself.

Not just spikes in disease transmission rates and more violent crimes:

While South Dakota legislators had a long and loud debate over funding schools, roads and healthcare providers in the short term this session, there are long term trends that will need attention too. At a recent legislative forum, District 18 Representative Jean Hunhoff of Yankton said a recently updated study shows the state is aging rapidly. The study is evaluating long term care options for the state, and Hunhoff says that aging population will impact most of the counties in the state. Hunhof[f], who runs a home health care service for Avera, says they are having a hard time finding people to work for them. Hunhoff says it is another issue that will take time, study and more money to resolve. [WNAX]

And:

According to Ashley Miller, chronic disease epidemiologist for the Department of Health, the number of students who are overweight or obese has plateaued in the past several years. She says that 175 of the state’s schools submit weight and height measurements for the department to calculate the obesity rate of kindergarten through high school age students. Miller says the state’s 2013-2014 school data found that 15.8 percent of South Dakota students were obese and another 16.5 percent were overweight. A total of 175 schools submitted student height and weight data for this latest survey, which accounts for 31.5 percent of the all the students in the state. [WNAX]

And:

“Twenty-five percent of the drivers in South Dakota tell us that they're driven drunk within the last 12 months,’ said John Korkow, USD Addiction Studies Professor. Korkow says while ages 18 to 30 are most likely to drive under the influence, he says there's an increase of those who are newly-retired driving drunk. [KDLT]

South Dakota voters deserve better.