U.S. Metropolitan Areas Make Healthful Strides over the Decade

The 100 largest U.S. cities and their suburbs made "considerable but inconsistent progress" in reaching seven key federal health goals, a new report finds. Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn looked at federal health and census statistics to sketch a social and health portrait of metropolitan areas, where 53 percent of the U.S. population resides. The TB rate for the cities was 13.1 per 100,000 and 4 per 100,000 for the suburbs. The Healthy People 2000 goal was 3.5. The AIDS rate for metropolitan areas was 15.4 cases per 100,000, well below the goal of 43 per 100,000. Cities reduced rates of syphilis by an average of 86 percent to 5.6 cases per 100,000, still above the goal of 4 cases per 100,000. Southern cities have the highest average of 9 cases per 100,000; Akron, Ohio, and Cincinnati reported no new cases in 2000. Cities averaged 321 gonorrhea cases per 100,000, still above the goal of 100 cases. Rates were highest in the Midwest and lowest in the West. The report, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was released yesterday.

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