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"   Photo: \u00A9 mjt/AdMedia/AdMedia/Corbis  For the past 24 years, the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Foundation, and Partnership for Prevention have been jointly publishing annual health stats about each state. Yesterday, they released the 2013 report and \u202Astate health rankings, and there are a few surprises. (Hint: Good news for obesity, not so much for sexually transmitted diseases.) Related: Birth Control Alternatives Researchers looked at factors like obesity, smoking, infectious diseases, and premature death to determine the rankings. And since you&amp;#039;re probably dying to know where your home state falls, here are the top ten healthiest states (you can see the full list here): Rankings: 1. Hawaii 2. Vermont 3. Minnesota 4. Massachusetts 5. New Hampshire 6. Utah 7. Connecticut 8. Colorado 9. North Dakota 10. New Jersey  \u202A \u202C Photo: Getty Images The study also tells us that smoking has decreased steadily since 1990. We also learn that physical activity is on the rise. While in previous years, studies had shown an increase in inactivity, it seems our country is getting off the couch and putting down the remote. Perhaps that&amp;#039;s why obesity, an increasingly common and worrisome trend in the US, is stable this year. While that&amp;#039;s good news, obesity still affects 28% of the adult population, making us one of the unhealthiest nations globally and causing diabetes to remain a rising national health concern. Related: Television Addiction: The Effects of Watching Too Much TV Dr. Rhonda Randall, senior adviser to United Health Foundation and chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare Retiree Solutions, is cautiously optimistic about the results. &amp;quot;The take home message is that Americans have made progress in their overall health this year,&amp;quot; Dr. Randall said. &amp;quot;What we&amp;#039;re hoping to see is this year&amp;#039;s data becoming a trend.&amp;quot; If you further break the data down to compare women and men, women are doing better than men in smoking rates and diabetes, but men are better about physical activity. Related: The New Science of Addiction: Is It Time to Rethink Rehab? And while obesity may be stable, STDs are on the rise. According to the survey, cases of chlamydia have increased by 8% this year. Eek. Dr. Randall suggests this could be as a result of improvements in testing. &amp;quot;Overall it&amp;#039;s a good news year, but we want to see the trends continue and there&amp;#039;s a lot more work to do,&amp;quot; Dr. Randall said. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a17995/top-ten-healthiest-states-2013/>