Sick states
Washington is the sixth healthiest state, based on illness reports posted to social media.
Sickweather – an app that scans social networks for indicators of illness – recently conducted a study of data culled from social media postings.
That data was used to identify the Top 10 Sickest States and the Top 10 Healthiest States in 2014. Sickweather analyzed social media reports of allergies, flu, cough, colds and fever from January through October to come up with the lists.
Oregon landed on the sick list, while Washington was on the healthy list.
Here are the sickest states:
- Kansas – 3.96 sick reports per thousand
- Nevada – 3.26
- Kentucky – 3.25
- Texas – 3.10
- West Virginia – 2.99
- Oregon – 2.95
- Indiana – 2.91
- Oklahoma – 2.72
- Massachusetts – 2.63
- Nebraska – 2.48
And here are the healthiest states:
- Idaho – 1.16 sick reports per thousand
- New York – 1.16
- Mississippi – 1.22
- Montana – 1.24
- Vermont – 1.38
- Washington – 1.39
- Maine – 1.39
- New Jersey – 1.41
- New Hampshire – 1.48
- Utah – 1.48
Of course, it’s entirely possible the healthiest states are just the states with residents who don’t feel the need to talk about their sniffles on social media.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.