CT lifts its U.S. health rank to No. 3 but …

Connecticut is now the third healthiest state in the country, a new study says, but that doesn’t mean The Nutmeg state has a clean bill of health.

The United Health Foundation’s annual “America’s Health Rankings,” report released Tuesday ranks Connecticut third of out of 50 states in terms of the overall health of its population, an improvement from last year when the state was ranked No. 4.

Connecticut’s ranking was largely helped by having one of the lowest obesity rates in the U.S. About 23 percent of the state’s adult population is obese, giving the state the second lowest rating. Vermont had the lowest obesity rate of 21.4 percent.

But it’s not all good news.

Even though the state’s obesity rate is smaller than most other states, the number of Connecticut citizens who tip the scale to unhealthy weights increased by 188,000 individuals in the past 10 years, bringing the total number of obese adults in the state to 634,000, the study found.

In Connecticut, obesity is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 39.5 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 20.8 percent. Diabetes also varies by race and ethnicity in the state; 11.5 percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes compared to 6.7 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

The report also found that:

• In the past year, smoking decreased from 15.4 percent to 13.2 percent of adults. There are 364,000 adults in Connecticut who still smoke.

• In the past year, diabetes increased from 6.6 percent to 7.3 percent of adults. There are 201,000 adults in Connecticut who have diabetes.

• In the past five years, geographic disparity within the state decreased from 8.5 percent to 5.4 percent.

• In the past five years, the infant mortality rate increased from 5.5 to 6.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.

• Compared to other health measures, the rate of preventable hospitalizations remains high in Connecticut at 63.1 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.

Nationwide, no progress was made in improving health in 2011 after three years of gains, the study found. While there were modest decreases in smoking and preventable hospitalizations there were dramatic increases in obesity and diabetes, combined with still-too-high levels of tobacco use, which are putting more people at risk for preventable illness and higher health expenditures

For the fifth year in a row, Vermont is the nation’s healthiest state. States that showed the most substantial improvement include New York and New Jersey, both moving up six places, largely because of improvements made in smoking cessation. Idaho and Alaska showed the most downward movement. Idaho dropped 10 spots, from number nine to 19 in this year’s Rankings, and Alaska dropped five places.